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For the first time head transplant planned head should be transplanted on donated body
The need of a Russian patient is so great that he agreed to a risky operation. A surgeon from Italy wants to transplant the head of a seriously ill man to a "donor body". Quite so out of this idea is not, as other doctors confirm. However, they nevertheless warn of the fatal consequences that can result from this.
Advances in transplantation medicine
Transplantation medicine has made tremendous progress in recent years. For example, since 2010, successful face transplants have repeatedly been performed. Last year, medical professionals managed the sensational transplantation of a skullcap. In the US, the first penile grafting was recently performed and in Germany, a uterine transplant is planned for the first time.
Even more striking, however, are the plans of an Italian surgeon: he wants to transplant a human head for the first time.
A severely handicapped Russian man is to get a new body in the coming year. It is planned to transplant his head to the body of a brain dead. (Image: Kadmy / fotolia.com) Human head should be transplanted
The message is a little reminiscent of the famous movie "Frankenstein", in which a researcher from several body parts creates a new entity: The Italian neurosurgeon Prof. Sergio Canavero plans for 2017 for the first time to transplant a human head.
According to his plans, the head of a sick patient should be cut off and placed on the healthy body of a brain dead during the first procedure performed worldwide. Already last year, Canavero told the science magazine "New Scientist": "I think we are now at the point that all technical aspects are feasible."
Patient with rare genetic defect
As a volunteer for the project was the 31-year-old Russian programmer Valery Spiridonov. According to a report by "Spiegel Online", the Russian suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, a rare genetic defect that causes muscles to shrink and destroy nerves responsible for movement. Spiridonov sits in a wheelchair, which he moves with a joystick. He does not know how much life he has left.
Experiments with animals
There have been several similar animal experiments in the past. For example, the Russian physician Vladimir Demikhov created a two-headed dog in the 1950s. And Professor Robert White of the Metro Health Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio transplanted a monkey head in 1970. However, the experimental animals lived only a few days after the surgery.
In 2013, the Chinese Ren Xiaoping managed to transplant a mouse head. He explained that Canavero's experiment is based on his basic knowledge. "Last year, he contacted me and asked for advice on the operation," said the Chinese People's Daily researcher..
Monkey had to be euthanized
According to "Spiegel Online" Canavero reported in early 2016, Ren Xiaoping had a rhesus monkey transplanted a foreign body. The two doctors want to operate together Spiridonow. According to Canavero, although the Chinese surgeon was able to restore the blood supply between the body parts so fast that the monkey's brain was not harmed by oxygen deficiency.
However, the monkey could not move his body after the operation. He had to be euthanized after 20 hours. Since the study has not yet been published, critics doubt the reliability of the information.
Critics were before the operation
Although my experts, Canavero and Ren, are quite well able to control the rejection reactions with medication, they doubt that it will be possible to transplant the head without brain damage. For example, the secretary of the German Society for Neurosurgery, Veit Braun, told the news magazine "Spiegel Online": "I assume that a stroke will occur."
The biggest hurdle is probably to reconnect the severed nerve fibers in the patient's spinal cord. Canavero said he could repair the injuries by minimizing damage to the nerves with a straight, sharp cut.
He wants to fill the gap between the fibers with the chemical polyethylene glycol (PEG). This method had in one experiment stimulated the nerve fibers of paraplegic rats to grow again. They were then able to move better than before, but their nerve fibers did not grow together.
"What Canavero is up to, goes wrong, that's what I told him," said Hans Werner Müller of the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory of the University of Dusseldorf, who led the PEG study, opposite the magazine.
Living head that has no control over the body
As Canavero also plans to sever the spine at a very high point, he would cut off the brain's control of breathing. "If everything goes well technically, you end up with a living head that has no control over your body," says Braun.
At the beginning of 2016, Canavero and Ren published a letter in the journal "Surgical Neurology International" in which they accuse critics of judging the project without knowing it properly. As the news magazine concludes, it will be impossible to carry out the operation unless the researchers succeed in convincing the medical community with facts.
But Canavero is convinced of his idea. "If people in the US or Europe do not want to do it, that does not mean that it can not be done anywhere else," said the surgeon. (Ad)