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.
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