Overview
- The Clinica Oculistica at Ospedale Molinette in Turin completed the procedure on Sunday in a nearly six-hour operation that transferred cornea, sclera, conjunctiva and, for the first time, the macula from one eye to the other.
- Hospital reports say the autotransplant led to correct tissue engraftment and early functional gains, including the patient recognizing her son and her guide dog during postoperative checks.
- Surgeons used the patient’s left eye tissue because that eye had irreversible optic‑nerve damage but intact structures, while the right eye had macular damage and corneal scarring that made standard transplant impossible.
- The team calls the move a new frontier in ocular surgery but emphasizes that longer-term function of the transplanted macula and its neural integration remain unknown and are under active follow-up.
- Beyond the clinical result for the 67-year-old patient, the operation shows a coordinated multidisciplinary approach and could open new options for complex bilateral eye trauma if longer-term retinal function proves durable.