A US military veteran who received the world’s first whole-eye transplant has made significant progress a year later and has been able to resume his normal life, researchers say.
Aaron James, 46, also received a rare partial-face transplant. He lost most of his face in an accident in 2021 while working as a high-voltage utility lineman.
His donor eye has so far maintained normal pressure and blood flow and retained its size, unlike donor eyes in animals that often shrink after transplants, researchers at NYU Langone Health said in a new study.
Mr James has not regained sight in that eye, but researchers are hopeful he might eventually be able to see out of it again.
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Last May, he underwent 21 hours of surgery that involved more than 140 healthcare professionals.
The donated face and eye came from a single male donor in his 30s. During the surgery, doctors injected adult stem cells from the donor’s bone marrow into the optic nerve to encourage its repair.
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The 46-year-old military veteran is only the 19th person in the US to undergo a face transplant and the first person in the world to receive an entire human eye transplant.
This. Whoever manages to splice an optic nerve (meaning, it goes just about perfectly) would be in line for a Nobel Prize for Medicine.