CORNEA GRAFTING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22259, 6 November 1935, Page 13

CORNEA GRAFTING

SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS TWO PATENTS IN LONDON British "Wireless RUGBY, ,Nov. 4 Two Temarkable cbrnea grafting operations were carried* out at the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital early last month. They have proved so successful that both patients, one of whom has been blind since his birth and tho other for 28 years, are expected to be able to see. • In the case of the man born blinds the substitution of visual perception for the sense of touch probably will take some time, but already h§ has been able to count his fingers and to distinguish colours. A note of caution was sounded yesterday by a practitioner to whom the message concerning cornea grafting was referred. He said experiments on these lines had been in progress for 20 years, but it was only in certain rare conditions of the eye that such an operation could be attempted. Successful . operations had been reported in the / past. x The operations, which involved a danger of loss of the eye, were performed in certain rare cases where the front wall of the patient's eye wa# opaque instead of clear. The opaque wall was removed and in its place was substituted a clear wall taken from the eye of a patient which had been removed from some other cause. He did not know of the operation having been attempted in New Zealand.