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Michelle Star writes at C/net that Surgeon Sergio Canavero, director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group in Italy, believes he has developed a technique to remove the head from a non-functioning body and transplant it onto the healthy body. According to Canavero's paper published in Surgical Neurology International, first, both the transplant head and the donor body need to be cooled in order to slow cell death. Then, the neck of both would be cut and the major blood vessels linked with tubes. Finally, the spinal cords would be severed, with as clean a cut as possible. Joining the spinal cords, with the tightly packed nerves inside, is key. The plan involves flushing the area with polyethylene glycol, followed by several hours of injections of the same, a chemical that encourages the fat in cell membranes to mesh. The blood vessels, muscles and skin would then be sutured and the patient would be induced into a coma for several weeks to keep them from moving around; meanwhile, electrodes would stimulate the spine with electricity in an attempt to strengthen the new nerve connections.
Head transplants have been tried before. In 1970, Robert White led a team at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, US, that tried to transplant the head of one monkey on to the body of another. The surgeons stopped short of a full spinal cord transfer, so the monkey could not move its body. Despite Canavero’s enthusiasm, many surgeons and neuroscientists believe massive technical hurdles push full body transplants into the distant future. The starkest problem is that no one knows how to reconnect spinal nerves and make them work again. “This is such an overwhelming project, the possibility of it happening is very unlikely,” says Harry Goldsmith.
This experimental study has confirmed a method to avoid cerebral ischemia during the surgery and solved an important part of the problem of how to accomplish long-term survival after transplantation and preservation of the donor brain stem.
http://gizmodo.com/the-crazy-science-behind-a-proposed-human-head-transpla-1688014257
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/06/head-transplant-italian-neuroscientist_n_3533391.html
[Abstract]: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cns.12341/abstract
(Score: 3, Insightful) by morgauxo on Friday February 27 2015, @02:34PM
If someone really had a scheme for repairing a severed spinal chord are "head transplants" really the first thing they would be talking about? Sure, I can see how that would eventually come up but wouldn't the first thought be helping all the paralyzed people out there?
(Score: 2) by kaganar on Friday February 27 2015, @02:47PM
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday February 27 2015, @05:40PM
Right, so we should test a new spinal-reattachment technology by transplanting a head, because there aren't many other unknowns with such a procedure.
As I recall though, there's actually been some very promising research that's been done with reconnecting surgically severed spinal cords in rats, though I think they usually sever at the waist, presumably in order to avoid all the survival problems associated with disconnecting the brain from the lungs, heart, etc. that rely on external control/regulation. (Yes, a heart can beat on it's own, but I don't think it can adapt to changing bloodflow demands.)
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Friday February 27 2015, @09:52PM
"There's a big difference between controlled incisions and arbitrary paralysis."
Which is why you make two controled incisions, one on each side of the original injury. Can the remaining chord be stretched to fill the gap? I don't know but even if you had to being in a section of cadaver chord I would think that would be easier than transplanting the whole head!