Unmentioned is whether the optic muscles were connected and/or usable: iris, cilia, 6 motor muscles/nerves to move the eyeball. The cosmetic benefit over a glass eye depends entirely on whether the eyeball moves somewhat normally, if not the iris responding normally.
Beyond that I'd offer zero hope of restoring any kind of visual acuity.
The term "Nerve" is used both for the bundle of neurons and for each neuron. Virtually all neurons, but particularly those in the eye, have a body-mapping to a corresponding area in the brain (and in the case of vision, across 2 sets of neurons). For vision, these nerves end in a columnar organization such that secondary neurons essentially observe these primary ones to detect e.g., motion across an axis at that point.
Even if you just clipped one optic nerve bundle and then tried to have it grow back together, there's no way you'd get even most of the connections right for the million+ neurons. So I see no hope for doing that with someone else's eye. So there's no real visual-function reason to try the eye transplant.
Worse, transplant drugs generally suppress the body's immunological response, in the normal compartments (blood and lymph). I'm not sure anyone's really tested transplantation in the brain compartment. I suppose an option for rejection is to remove the eye, but how much of the nerve would have to be removed? How much brain surgery would be require for that?
Or perhaps worse, imagine signals do get through but hugely messy. If/since flashing lights and swerving horizons can produce headache and nausea, I can't imagine what this visual garbage would do.
In this case, I'd be concerned this electrical lineman was caught up in the surgeon's desire to make a name for himself.
> caught up in the surgeon's desire to make a name for himself.
Clinical trials often give people a ray of hope and I would imagine this trial was done without coercion. Remember that insulin, coronary bypass surgery and literally every medical treatment today was once experimental.
The first heart transplant (1967, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6062759/ ) made newspaper front page headlines and was not smooth sailing: "Although the patient, Mr. Louis Washansky, died after only 18 days, Barnard soon carried out a second transplant, and this patient led an active life for almost 19 months. Remarkably, Barnard’s fifth and sixth patients lived for almost 13 and 24 years, respectively."
Usually, candidates considered for heart transplants don't have a great alternative - i.e. healthy enough to survive the surgery but without the surgery these candidates would have deteriorated regardless
He got the experimental eye transplant because he was already going to get a face transplant. Even if the eye doesn't work, it offers some cosmetic value but, more importantly, it helps advance a field of medicine that he no doubt feels passionate about.
He stated in an interview that he was amply warned about potential risks and complications, he knew that it was highly experimental, and he knew that it's unlikely that he will ever develop vision or voluntary control of the eye -- but he wanted to go ahead anyway.
They only offered him the option because he is already going to be on transplant drugs and will require ongoing medical care for the rest of his life.
Beyond that I'd offer zero hope of restoring any kind of visual acuity.
The term "Nerve" is used both for the bundle of neurons and for each neuron. Virtually all neurons, but particularly those in the eye, have a body-mapping to a corresponding area in the brain (and in the case of vision, across 2 sets of neurons). For vision, these nerves end in a columnar organization such that secondary neurons essentially observe these primary ones to detect e.g., motion across an axis at that point.
Even if you just clipped one optic nerve bundle and then tried to have it grow back together, there's no way you'd get even most of the connections right for the million+ neurons. So I see no hope for doing that with someone else's eye. So there's no real visual-function reason to try the eye transplant.
Worse, transplant drugs generally suppress the body's immunological response, in the normal compartments (blood and lymph). I'm not sure anyone's really tested transplantation in the brain compartment. I suppose an option for rejection is to remove the eye, but how much of the nerve would have to be removed? How much brain surgery would be require for that?
Or perhaps worse, imagine signals do get through but hugely messy. If/since flashing lights and swerving horizons can produce headache and nausea, I can't imagine what this visual garbage would do.
In this case, I'd be concerned this electrical lineman was caught up in the surgeon's desire to make a name for himself.