Woman Can See Again After New Eye Operation
Doctors in Italy did an operation that nobody did before.
A woman in Italy can see again.
Her name is Elena. She is 67 years old. She was blind for many years after a car accident.
Both of her eyes were damaged, but in different ways. Her left eye had a good front part. Her right eye had a good nerve.
Doctors in Turin moved the good parts of her left eye into her right eye. The operation took six hours.
Nobody did this operation before. It was the first time in the world.
When Elena opened her eyes, she could see her son and her dog, Joe.
Understood everything? Read this story at A2.
Blind Woman Sees Again After World-First Eye Transplant in Italy
Surgeons in Turin moved the central part of the retina from one of her eyes to the other.
A woman who was blind for several years can see again after a world-first operation in Turin, Italy.
The patient, a 67-year-old woman called Elena, lost her sight in a car accident. In her left eye, the optic nerve — which sends pictures from the eye to the brain — was completely broken, but the other parts of the eye were fine. In her right eye it was the opposite: the nerve was fine, but the retina and the front of the eye were destroyed.
Surgeon Michele Reibaldi and his team decided to take the healthy parts of the left eye and move them into the right eye. This included the macula, the small central part of the retina that gives us sharp vision. Nobody had ever transplanted a macula before.
The operation took six hours. Professor Reibaldi called it a "complicated marathon" for the surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses.
Doctors say the new parts have attached correctly and Elena is getting her sight back. The best moment, Reibaldi said, was when Elena opened her eyes and recognised her son and her dog, Joe.
Understood everything? Read this story at B1.
World-First Retina Transplant Restores Sight to Woman Blinded in Car Crash
Surgeons in Turin combined the working parts of the patient's two damaged eyes into one that can see.
A woman who was blinded in a road accident several years ago has regained her sight after surgeons in Turin, Italy, carried out what is believed to be the world's first transplant of a central retina.
The patient, 67-year-old Elena, had two damaged eyes that failed in opposite ways. In her left eye the optic nerve, which carries images from the eye to the brain, was completely severed, while the rest of the eye remained largely intact. In her right eye the nerve was undamaged, but the crash had destroyed the retina, the cornea and the tissue containing the eye's stem cells, making a normal corneal transplant impossible.
Ocular surgeon Professor Michele Reibaldi, of the Molinette Hospital, realised that between the two eyes there were enough healthy components to build one working eye. His team moved the macula — the small, light-sensitive region at the centre of the retina responsible for sharp, high-definition vision — together with the cornea and sclera from the left eye into the right. A macula had never been transplanted before.
The six-hour operation, which Reibaldi described as a "complicated marathon", required careful coordination between surgeons, anaesthetists and nursing staff. "This procedure represents a new frontier in ocular surgery," he said, according to Italian newspaper La Stampa. "Now we will wait and see how well the transplanted retina functions, though early signs are encouraging."
Follow-up checks have confirmed that the transplanted tissue has attached correctly and that Elena is regaining vision in her right eye. Reibaldi said the team's greatest reward was the moment Elena opened her eyes and recognised her son and her dog, Joe.
Too difficult? Read this story at A2 or at A1.