A corneal transplant on the youngest child in the UK ever to undergo the operation has been successful, doctors at Birmingham Children's Hospital have reported.
Two and a half-week old Eva Joyce underwent an operation to remove her cloudy cornea and graft a clear donor cornea onto her right eye, after she was born with Peter's anomaly which caused her to be blind. Her left eye was operated on just two weeks later.
The eye department at Birmingham Children's Hospital worked closely with transplant experts from the liver department to ensure that Ms Joyce did not reject the donor corneas, as the risk of this was high due to her age.
The ophthalmic team at Birmingham Children's Hospital were confident that Ms Joyce's eye sight would develop normally, said consultant ophthalmologist Manoj Parulekar.
"Corneal grafts in young children are complex operations and need input from several medical staff. It is also dependent on suitable donor corneas becoming available," he explained.