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Update
A medical feat has taken place in Montpellier (Hérault). A 38-year-old patient was able to benefit from an artificial cornea. A first in Europe that raises a lot of hope.
Last straight line before the operation, that of the very last chance for this patient. This Frenchman has been blind in his right eye for 16 years after an accident at work. A projectile damaged her cornea so much that a donor transplant is unthinkable. He is the fourth patient in the world to attempt a totally artificial cornea transplant. “I want to live a normal life, that small harmless gestures are no longer an ordeal”. Only two hospitals in France are participating in the global clinical trial, including the Montpellier University Hospital (Hérault).
The artificial cornea is made of plastic. The operation is delicate and lasts nearly four hours. The surgeon, Vincent Daien, head of the ophthalmology service at the Montpellier University Hospital, is accompanied by Dr. Gilat Litvin, designer of the artificial cornea and the first ophthalmologist to have performed this operation in Israel at the start of the year. “He was an elderly man who had been blind for ten years. The day after the operation, he saw again and his eyesight has been stable since.” In Montpellier, a week after the operation, the right eye of the patient who had spent half of his life in the dark, regained almost perfect vision. “Today I see again, everything is a treat for my eyes”, he explains, moved. If the clinical trial is successful, it could give hope to the two million patients worldwide who are contraindicated to conventional transplantation.