A 67-year-old woman regained her sight after more than five years of total blindness. She underwent a groundbreaking transplant at Molinette Hospital. in TurinIn northern Italy, a surgeon underwent a procedure to transfer the entire anterior segment of the eye and the central part of the retina, the macula, from one eye to the other.
According to the hospital, no medical team in the world had ever performed a macular transplant before. The team from the Molinette University Ophthalmology Clinic, led by Professor Michele Reibaldi, conducted the procedure.
“Until now, a simultaneous anterior segment transplant had only been performed once in the entire world, by Professor Vincenzo Sarnicola and myself, right here at Molinette. It had never been possible to transplant the central retinal zone before,” explained Reibaldi.
An eye reconstructed from parts of two eyes.
The patient, identified only as Elena, lost her sight in a serious car accident. The trauma irreversibly damaged the optic nerve in her left eye, which retained its structure. Her right eye, which already suffered from maculopathy, had compromised retina and cornea, making a conventional transplant unfeasible.
The new law will now be reviewed by the European Union's courts. And there are European precedents that strengthen the defense of descendants.
- New legal front opened
- Processes can still be filed.
- Individual analysis of your case.
With no other therapeutic options, the surgeons used healthy, but non-visually functioning, tissue from the left eye to reconstruct the right. They transplanted the cornea, sclera, conjunctiva, and, for the first time in the world, the macula as a single unit. The surgery lasted almost six hours.
According to Reibaldi, the patient began to perceive light and, in less than three weeks, started seeing in black and white and then began to distinguish colors. "Her quality of life will certainly change," he stated.
Reunion with son and guide dog
Upon opening her eyes, Elena recognized the faces of her son and Joe, her guide dog, who had remained by her side during her hospitalization with the hospital administration's permission. "I'm overjoyed," declared the patient, who will soon see her grandson. She also joked, "But I'm upset now that I've seen myself in the mirror: I looked better five years ago."
Tests indicate that the transplanted tissues have integrated successfully and that the eye's functional recovery is progressing. Medical follow-up continues to assess the long-term performance of the retina.
For Reibaldi, the procedure paves the way for new approaches to complex eye injuries. The Director-General of the Città della Salute e della Scienza in Turin, Livio Tranchida, described the intervention as an extraordinary achievement and a demonstration of the “value of public health”.
What is a stain?
The macula is the central region of the retina, responsible for detailed vision and the clear perception of images, such as faces and letters. When it is damaged (called maculopathies), the patient loses central vision, although some peripheral vision is preserved. Due to its complexity, the macula had never been transplanted before, according to Molinette Hospital.
