Word: payrau
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Dates: during 1964-1964
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Professor Paul Payrau of Paris has been doing just that, he told a World Congress on the Cornea in Washington. First, of course, he tried grafting corneas from animal to animal. He got mixed results, but enough encouragement to try the technique on human patients. Pig corneas were no good because after transplantation they became opaque. But corneas from a large variety of dogs have remained transparent in 50% of Dr. Payrau's cases. Size is unimportant since only a segment of the human cornea is replaced. Dogs' eyes even have an advantage over humans...
...Payrau has also had some success with calf corneas, though they usually do not retain so much transparency as those of dogs. But his most exotic source of supply is a species of small shark, the lesser spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus caniculus). Its cornea has the advantage of not swelling in water, which made it attractive to Dr. Payrau for patients whose eyes leak fluid, though it is thin and fragile and retains only moderate transparency...
More work is needed before fish-eye transplants become routine, said Dr. Payrau, but he believes that dog corneas should now be used in emergencies when human corneas are not available...
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