Who performed the first successful corneal transplant in 1905?

Eduard Zirm performed the first successful corneal transplant in 1905.

Zirm carried out the operation at the Olomouc Eye Clinic in what is now the Czech Republic. The donor tissue came from an 11-year-old boy whose corneas were transplanted into a 45-year-old farm worker blinded by a chemical injury.

The recipient regained useful vision in one eye, and the graft remained clear for many years. Earlier corneal graft experiments had generally failed because transplanted tissue became opaque or was rejected.

Zirm’s operation helped establish corneal transplantation as a practical treatment. It is distinct from later breakthroughs in whole-eye transplantation, which remain far more difficult because the optic nerve cannot yet be reliably reconnected.