The world’s first whole eye transplant was performed in New York. There was a Pole in the team of doctors

The operation was performed at the end of May 2023 and lasted approximately 21 hours. More than 140 surgeons, nurses and other health care workers participated. The team was led by Eduardo D. Rodriguez, director of the Facial Transplant Program and head of the Department of Plastic Surgery. Hansjörg Wyss at the NYU Langone Academic Hospital in New York in .

As Gazeta.pl found out, the team also included Dr. Patryk Filipiak, who performed magnetic resonance imaging to determine whether the patient after eye transplantation reacted to light.

Dr. Patryk Filipiak CBS Mornings | youtu.be/I7aprt7l42s?si=VM6IjZXCefovvBSs

USA. The world’s first successful eye transplant

Aaron James survived a dangerous accident at work as a high-voltage installer. In June 2021, he touched a live wire with his face and was electrocuted by 7,200 volts. As a result of this incident, he lost, among others: left hand, nose and lips, front teeth, left cheek and chin – .

Due to the severe pain the patient was suffering from, surgeons also had to remove his left eye. Then Eduardo D. Rodriguez and his team, who were already preparing to transplant the man’s face, suggested cutting the optic nerve as close to the eyeball as possible with the hope of possibly performing the first eye transplant in history. So far, doctors have only managed to transplant the cornea. Experts assumed that the new eye would provide Aaron James with, at best, cosmetic benefits.

– I said that even if it didn’t work, I would have a normal-looking eye and they could learn something from this surgery. They must have patient zero, James said.

The world’s first eye transplant was successful

By early 2023, the team from NYU Langone was ready and the search for a donor began. This was accomplished extremely quickly – in just three months. The donor was an approximately 30-year-old man whose family was very supportive of organ donation. His organs – kidneys, liver and pancreas – saved three other people.

Stem cells were also obtained from the donor’s bone marrow and injected into the patient’s optic nerve during an eye and face transplant in the hope that they would replace the damaged cells and protect the nerve.

According to surgeons, the first ever whole eye transplant was a great success, although the patient has not yet regained his sight. Within six months of surgery, the transplanted eye showed “significant signs of health,” including well-functioning blood vessels and a promising-looking retina.

Aaron James before the accident, after the accident and after the transplant AP/AP

Eduardo D. Rodriguez, who led the team during the transplant, estimated that if this procedure was combined with other methods of restoring vision that scientists from all over the world are working on, it is possible that full restoration of vision will become possible in the future – he said in an interview with .

Dr. Oren Tepper, head of the craniofacial surgery program at Montefiore Hospital in New York, estimates that significant progress has been made in the field of face transplantation. “Ultimately, if we can restore optic nerve function in some form, it will be a huge breakthrough in medicine for patients who have lost an eye due to injury or cancer,” he says.