| Title | Doctors Complete First Successful Face and Whole-Eye Transplant | |
| Date | Tuesday November 14 2023, @02:41PM | |
| Author | janrinok | |
| Topic | ||
| from the dept. | ||
Surgeons transplanted part of a face and an entire eyeball into a man with severe electrical burns:
This week doctors announced they had completed the first successful transplant of a partial face and an entire eye. In May at NYU Langone Health in New York City, the surgery was performed on a 46-year-old man who had suffered severe electrical burns to his face, left eye and left arm. He does not yet have vision in the transplanted eye and may never regain it there, but early evidence suggests the eye itself is healthy and may be capable of transmitting neurological signals to the brain.
The feat opens up the possibility of restoring the appearance—and maybe even sight—of people who have been disfigured or blinded by injuries. Researchers caution there are many technical hurdles before such a procedure can effectively treat vision loss, however.
"I think it's an important proof of principle," says Jeffrey Goldberg, a professor and chair of ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University, who was not involved in the surgery but has been part of a team working toward whole-eye transplants in humans. "I think it points to the opportunity and importance that we really stand on the verge of being able to [achieve] eye transplants and vision restoration for blind patients more broadly. "But he cautions that the main obstacle is achieving regeneration of the optic nerve, which carries visual signals from the retina to the brain; this step has not yet been successfully demonstrated in humans.
Face and cornea transplants have been performed before, yet to the NYU Langone team's knowledge, this is the first time a whole eye has been transplanted successfully (with or without a face). The first partial face transplant was performed in 2005 in France. As of 2021, nearly 50 face transplants had been conducted worldwide. In 1969 Texas physician Conard Moore claimed to have attempted the first whole-eye transplant in a human, but it was not successful. Amid criticism, Moore later retracted his claim, saying he had only transplanted the eye's outer portion—the sclera and cornea. Although a subsequent analysis suggested he may, in fact, have transplanted the whole eye, it did not develop a blood supply.
The recent transplant was performed by Eduardo Rodriguez, director of the face transplant program and chair of the department of plastic surgery at NYU Langone Health, and his colleagues. The recipient was Arkansas-based military veteran Aaron James, whose face touched a live wire while he was working as an electrical lineman in Oklahoma in June 2021. The accident left him with severe burns to the left side of his face, including his left eye, nose and lips, and extensive damage to his left arm, his dominant limb. James was transferred to a hospital in Texas, where he received multiple reconstructive surgeries. His left eye was removed because it was causing pain, and his left arm was amputated above the elbow and fitted with a prosthetic hook. He was in a medical coma for six weeks and he says he doesn't remember anything from the accident and afterward until he woke up at the hospital.
Two months after the accident, Rodriguez and his colleagues at NYU Langone Health became aware of James's case. Over the next year they discussed the possibility of a face transplant with Aaron James and his wife, Meagan. The decision was made to transplant the donor's eye as well, because even if James never regained sight, the organ would help restore his face's appearance. Like any transplant, there was a chance his immune system would reject the eye—but he would already need to take immunosuppressant medication for the face transplant.
[...] James has since made a good recovery. He is able to talk, and although he does not have much ability to move his lips and facial muscles yet, Rodriguez says he will recover a lot of that ability with time. He can eat food on his own again now, and his wife Meagan says he has a big appetite. James was even able to attend his daughter's high school graduation, and he says keeping his sense of humor has been critical to his recovery.
Rodriguez and the rest of the surgical team are very pleased with James's recovery. "Everything that we're seeing so far, no one expected," he says. "Even if we don't get sight, I will tell you at this point in time, everything seems incredibly exciting."
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printed from SoylentNews, Doctors Complete First Successful Face and Whole-Eye Transplant on 2025-03-15 11:53:03