Surgeon plans first human head transplant for next year

Today’s medical technology has allowed doctors to transplant several of the body’s organs, extending the lives of people who may be suffering chronic diseases. Now, Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero plans to do the very first human head transplant in 2017.

While this isn’t the first time he has made the claim, now, he has a volunteer lined up and explained in greater detail how the process would go. His volunteer, Valery Spiridonov, is 31 years old and suffers from a muscle-wasting disease called Werdnig-Hoffman’s. This leaves him bound to a wheelchair and dependent on others for basic needs. Canavero wants to put his head on a body that does not have Werdnig-Hoffman’s, but first needs to find such a body.

Ideally, the owner of the body will come from someone who is brain-dead and whose organs are considered acceptable for transplantation. When Canavero explains the process of disposing of the old body, he states the patient would be cooled to slow damage to brain cells. Surgeons would then sever the soft tissue in the neck, and tubes would be attached to all the arteries and veins to maintain blood flow. 

Next, Canavero plans to use a diamond knife to sever the spinal cord. Removing the donor's head should let surgeons reattach all the nerves and blood vessels to the new body. A unique bio-compatible glue holds the spinal cord together so it can fuse with the donor body. The patient will be put in a drug-induced coma for four weeks while the connection between the head and body heals. There has never been a successful procedure reattaching a fully severed spinal cord.

Canavero notes that all the technology he needs is available, estimating the procedure to take approximately 36 hours and require the services of 150 medical professionals. He expects a 90% chance of success, meaning a 90% chance that the patient will wake up and be able to walk a few months after the surgery.

While this may sound like science fiction, so did face transplants years ago, and those have grown in popularity. But even if the head transplant does work, it is likely to be obscenely expensive.

Source: ExtremeTech