MONITORING (SW) – A surgical team at NYU Langone Health performed the world’s first whole-eye and partial-face transplant in May 2023 for 46-year-old military veteran Aaron James, who had survived a high-voltage electrical accident at work.
Over a year later, James has made a remarkable recovery and is back to daily life.
A study published September 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reveals clinical outcomes and discoveries from the past year. Notably, the transplanted donor eye has maintained normal pressure and blood flow over time, contrary to findings from animal models of whole-eye transplants, where the eye often shrank significantly.
Although the transplanted eye has not regained vision, electroretinography—a test that measures the retina’s electrical response to light—shows a photoreceptor response, indicating that rods and cones, the light-sensitive nerve cells in the eye, survived the transplant. This electrical response converts light into signals that ultimately the brain could interpret for vision, giving hope for the future of whole-eye transplants with an aim to restore sight.
The JAMA study, led by Dr. Rodriguez and his colleagues in the Hansjörg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery, the Departments of Ophthalmology and Radiology, and NYU Langone’s Transplant Institute, details the 21-hour surgery that utilized innovative microsurgical techniques, customized surgical devices, and cell-based therapies.
This procedure included the first attempt in injecting stem cells into a human optic nerve during transplant, aiming to enhance nerve regeneration. The team also notes the challenges of a combined whole-eye and partial-face transplant but demonstrates that the procedure can restore important functions and structures for the patient.
The study also reports the results of clinical tests on the transplanted donor eye conducted over the past year, using various evaluation methods. The examinations showed several hopeful results, like normal eye pressure, good blood flow in the eye, and some remaining structure in the retina.
