An Italian surgeon, dr. Sergio Canavero claims that all the techniques necessary to achieve interventions already exist, it need only their integration and head transplantation may become possible over 2 years.
The surgeon says that the intervention could restore the health of people with various disabilities: paralysis due to spinal cord injury (such as that of the late actor Christopher Reeve suffered, as a result of a riding accident, has spent the last nine years of life paralyzed from the neck down), muscular dystrophies, neurological diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (suffered by the famous scientist Stephen Hawking) or cancers that have affected several internal organs.
Dr. Canavero claims that the operation is technically possible; it's been over 40 years since the first such intervention done on monkeys and that China was recently conducted an operation of this kind in a mouse. Therefore, he argues, there are techniques required and it takes only merge them into a coherent whole, to enable operation and humans. According to him, head transplantation in humans could be achieved over a short time - 2 years.
The doctor already drawn up a list of potential customers and will announce his plans at a major medical conference to be held this summer, the idea of getting support for the creation of the first human head transplant in 2017.
In such an intervention, the body would come from a person brain dead; This person would be considered "donor". The ends of the recipient and the donor would be detached from the trunk - in a very precise cut with a very sharp cutting device - and then head recipient would be attached by an adhesive donor body called polyethylene glycol, which will "stick" to each other the two ends of the severed spinal cord. It would follow a painstaking work of attachment of muscles and blood vessels, then the patient should be placed in a state of coma (medically induced) to prevent moving, for 4 weeks, during which time would heal wounds operators and would "weld" to one another the head and the body.
In addition, to stimulate the functioning of the spinal cord and forming new connections between head and body, the patient should be administered electric shocks weak.
Once out of the coma would be necessary so long treatment with immunosuppressive drugs to prevent transplant rejection phenomenon and sustained psychological support.
Apparently, it seems well established procedure; other specialists argue that claims dr. Canavero are fantastic and we are still very far from the day when he could be successful human head transplant.
Although basic medical techniques exist remains an extremely complicated procedure.
In addition, head transplantation puts enormous ethical and legal issues. For example, in the case of a patient who has undergone a transplant of the head would have children, to whom they may be of the? They should probably be considered biological descendants of the donor (the person to whom it belonged body) because sperm or eggs should be designed through which these children would come from the body.
It also poses serious problems related to such person's identity "reconstructed" and do not know what track would combine a brain with a foreign object on the perception of self and the individual's personality.
Source: Mail Online
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