Man regains sight in groundbreaking surgery in Italy
The procedure, a world first, involved transplanting the entire surface of his blind left eye into his blind right one, ANSA reports.
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 conjunctival and sclero-corneal tissue, 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 International Society of Cornea, Stem Cells and Ocular Surface.