Here are five insights:
1. The patient had perfect eyesight until June 2009.
2. Ophthalmologist Jeffrey Weiss, MD, of Retina Associates of South Florida in Margate, conducted a study on retinal stem cell surgery.
3. For the procedure, an orthopedic surgeon extracts bone marrow from the patient, and using a special machine, the marrow is spun down to stem cells. Those cells are then injected into the problem area, which in this case, was the patient’s optic nerve.
4. Dr. Weiss estimates 60 percent of his patients gain vision.
5. Dr. Weiss has operated on around 275 patients for this surgical procedure, doing about 16 to 18 surgeries a month. The surgery takes about 2.5 hours from start to finish, and it takes about a month for the eyes to heal.
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