A 78-year-old Israeli man, legally blind, regained his sight after an artificial corneal transplant – the first time such a procedure was successful.
Jamal Furani of Haifa was able to read the text and recognize relatives after receiving the CorNeat Vision biomimetic implant during the monthly operation of less than an hour, the Times of Israel reported.
“The revelation of this first implanted eye and being in that room was surreal,” the company’s co-founder, Dr. Gilad Litvin, told the newspaper.
“Witnessing a man regaining his sight the next day was electrifying and emotional,” Litvin said. “There were many tears in the room.”
The artificial cornea, made of a non-degradable synthetic porous material, fits into the eye wall to replace scarred or deformed corneas.
Once implanted, the material integrates with living tissue, stimulating “cell proliferation” in the eye, due in part to nano-scale chemical engineering, the company said.
Once his bandages were removed, Furani saw the light, the company said in a Jan. 11 statement.
“The surgical procedure was straightforward, and the result exceeded all our expectations,” said Professor Irit Bahar, who performed the implant surgery.
Furani suffered from eye edema and other diseases that made him legally blind for about a decade, the press said.
Furani was one of 10 patients approved for the experimental procedure at Rabin Medical Center, and two more sites are set to open in Canada this month.
Other sites in the US, France and the Netherlands are awaiting approval.