Breakthrough in stem cell surgery helps restore sight

Dr Lyndon Da Cruz, the consultant ophthalmic surgeon who performed the operation,
Dr Lyndon Da Cruz, the consultant ophthalmic surgeon who performed the operation,
TIMES NEWSPAPERS LTD

Doctors have carried out the world’s first operation to restore a woman’s sight by using stem cells to regrow part of her eye.

Moorfields Eye Hospital announced that the operation had been carried out successfully on an anonymous 60-year-old patient with a condition known as wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Specialists will not know until December whether the surgery has restored her sight, but said that there had been no complications during surgery and that they were hopeful she would be able to see again.

The revolutionary procedure involves taking a single stem cell from an embryo and growing it into a “patch” of cells that can then be transplanted into the eye.

Lyndon Da Cruz, the consultant ophthalmic surgeon who performed the operation, said: