Can an eye transplant be performed to cure a person with RP?
No. Medical technology is not yet advanced enough to transplant the entire eye. It is simply impossible to reconnect the nerves leading from the eye to the brain. What you may have heard referred to as an “eye transplant” is probably the process of corneal transplantation, which is a valuable visionsaving procedure for some people, but unfortunately has no relationship to the problems in the eye caused by RP. However, retinal cell transplantation is a procedure that may have promise for people with RP in the future, although it is still in its early experimental stages. Retinal cell transplantation is further described below.
