From artificial hearts to strengthening brain power via inspecting your brainwaves, the realm of biotechnology has now extended to successfully restore the sight of a blind man. Nearly 50 million people worldwide suffer from corneal blindness and this artificial cornea transplant regains the ability to see this world, claims the health specialists of Israel.
Synthetic Cornea
The World’s first synthetic cornea transplant was carried out on January 11 at the Beilinson Hospital in Israel. Being granted approval in 2020 to move forward with clinical tries to implant artificial synthetic cornea, the Israeli startup CorNeat Vision triumphed by regaining the sight of a 78-yr old blind man, who had lost his vision, 10 years back.
The artificial implantation Kit ‘KPro’ assures the people who have gone blind due to cornea deformation or damage, in regaining their seeing ability.
Cornea covers the outer layer of our eyes, protecting them and serving as a lens; damage or disease can cloud the cornea and lead to reduced eyesight or blindness.
And this KPro designed as a non-degradable synthetic nanofabric skirt is placed under a conjunctiva, a thin membrane covering the surface of the eyelid and the white part of the eyeball, the sclera, to serve the purpose.
The process is relatively simple & takes less than an hour, says Dr.Gilad Litvin, Chief medical officer of CorNeat Vision and inventor of the KPro implantation kit.
CorNeat Vision collaborating with Beilinson Hospital picked 10 corneal blinded persons for trials, who fall either under not suitable candidates for transplants or had one or more failed corneal transplants in the past. The procedure was performed by Professor Irit Bahar, the Head of the ophthalmology department, Beilinson Hospital.
Watch the news by Israel showing the patient successfully regaining his vision.
Following the procedure, the company reported that the patient was able to recognize his family and read words.
“The moment we took off the bandages was emotional and significant,” Dr. Bahar said in a statement. “Moments like these are the fulfillment of our calling as doctors. We are proud of being at the forefront of this exciting and meaningful project which will undoubtedly impact the lives of millions.”
Litvin said he was thrilled with the results, saying it “surreal” that the team had made a world-first achievement and that it was making waves in the field of organ transplantation.
“After years of hard work, seeing a colleague implant the CorNeat KPro with ease and witnessing a fellow human being regain his sight the following day was electrifying and emotionally moving,” said Dr. Litvin. “There were a lot of tears in the room.”
As per WHO reports, 2 million people fell for corneal blindness annually. And according to data, only one corneal donor is on tap for every 70 blindfolded people, which pushes colossal percentage to remain blind.
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This donor-demands sparked off the researchers to utilize pig corneas for the transplant, as it was proved to be a viable solution. Now, they made it possible to bestow millions of blindfolded people around the world to regain the vision via this synthetic corneal transplant.
Get to know the actual procedure of operating the artificial corneal transplant, by watching this video.
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References:https://www.medgadget.com/2021/01/corneat-synthetic-cornea-implanted-in-first-patient.htmlhttps://www.ophthalmologytimes.com/view/artificial-cornea-restores-patient-s-visionhttps://www.labiotech.eu/startup-scout/corneat-vision-cornea-transplant/https://www.businessinsider.com/world-first-artificial-corneal-transplant-78-year-old-has-recovered-sightisraelIR=T#:~:text=Dubbed%20KPro%2C%20the%20artificial%20implant,of%20the%20eyeball%2C%20the%20sclera.