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