US surgeons have announced the world’s first whole-eye transplant after a boundary-pushing 21-hour surgery. While the 46-year-old patient, Aaron James, cannot yet – and may never – see through his new eye, the organ is showing signs of health and even this partial success takes transplantation into entirely new territory.
It marks the latest in a series of extraordinary advances in the field. Last year, the first genetically modified pig heart transplant was performed, with a second patient treated. Modified pig kidneys have been observed to function successfully in a human body. Womb transplants have become more widely available, with the first UK procedure announced in August, as have hand and arm transplants and intestine transplants. And scientists have developed new techniques to recondition donated organs that previously would have been discarded.
