Man regains sight in groundbreaking surgery

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 24 - An 83-year-old blind man has partly regained his sight following groundbreaking surgery, it emerged on Friday.
    The procedure, a world first, involved transplanting the entire surface of his blind left eye into his blind right one.
    Two weeks after the operation at Turin's Molinette hospital, the patient is able to recognize people and objects and move around without assistance.
    "The real innovation is to have expanded corneal transplantation to the entire eye surface, to the conjunctivo-scleral tissues, which play a key role in enabling successful transplantation under special conditions," said the doctors.
    "The frontier of transplantation has advanced considerably in the last 20 years, and Italy plays a leading role globally," added Professor Vincenzo Sarnicola, President of the Italian Cornea and Stem Cell Society. (ANSA).