The use of adult stem cells have successfully reversed 65 percent of the lost vision in the eye of a teen who went nearly blind after accidentally spraying himself in the eye with glass cleaner.

The Mumbai Mirror is reporting on the case of 14 year-old Omkar Babhat of Airoli, India, who has recovered 65 percent of the vision lost in his right eye after severe chemical burns rendered the eye incapable of seeing anything but occasional flashes of light.

Doctors could not perform a corneal transplant because the boy’s corneal limbus – which is the junction where the black and white portions of the eye meet – was too damaged.

The first ray of hope came for the boy when corneal sugeon Dr. Suresh Palanisamy suggested they try a new procedure known as a Simple Limbal Epithelial Transplantation (SLET) which involves harvesting stem cells from the corneal limbus of the undamaged eye and transplanting them into the injured eye.

“The patient had suffered ocular surface damage due to severe chemical burns. The cornea, which is normally clear, had turned opaque blocking the vision. There was also accumulation of scar tissue due to the burns,” explained Palanisamy, who operated on Omkar at the Fortis Hospital in Mulund.

The procedure took two hours and involved removing tiny bits of stem cell tissue from Omkar’s healthy left eye into his damaged right eye. A layer of amniotic membrane was stuck onto the damaged cornea with a special glue to which 10 tiny pieces of the stem cell tissue were affixed.

Not long afterward, Omkar’s vision slowly began to return.

“As the healthy stem cells multiply, the opaque cornea started getting clear and Omkar began regaining vision,” Palanisamy said. “It will get better over the next three months.”

Omkar’s father, Shivaji, said his son is not only able to see again, he can do so well enough to read.

In 2012, the British Journal of Opthamology published a study involving the use of SLET on six patients who had experienced ocular burns, all of whom experienced recovery. Even though long-term results are yet to be known, this new procedure is turning out to be an easy and effective technique for treating patients who suffer ocular burns.

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