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Doctors planning the first human head transplant
A team of elite surgeons from around the world will soon be attempting a medical first — a full human head transplant. No, this is not a movie, sci-fi novel, or tragically late April Fools’ prank. This is actually happening, and no one knows if it will work or what it could mean if it does.
The patient (read: guinea pig) is a 30-year-old Russian man named Valery Spiridonov. He’s not just doing this for fun, though. Spiridonov has a terminal form of spinal atrophy called Werdnig-Hoffman disease. There’s no known medical treatment that will save his life, except maybe taking his head off and placing it on a different, healthier body.
Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero will be in charge of decapitating and re-capitating Spiridonov, following a procedure laid out in a paper published in the journal Surgical Neurology International. The operation is expected to take 36 hours and require 150 medical staff.
First, Spiridonov’s head and new body will be cooled to slow the rate of cell decomposition. Then, doctors will hook up all the major blood vessels in the neck to machines that will keep things flowing during the transfer. The spinal cord will then be severed and the head will be moved to the new body for attachment. Canavero plans to use polyethylene glycol injections to get the cells and connective tissues to stick together, binding the head to the new body. After that, it’s simply a matter of connecting blood vessels, muscles, and nerves.
Doctors expect it will take up to a year for Spiridonov’s spinal cord to completely fuse with the new body, but that’s far from the only potential complication. No one really knows what switching bodies will do to the brain. The exposure to completely different chemical and electrical signals could drive a man mad. There’s also the possibility the new body will reject Spiridonov’s head, even with powerful anti-rejection drugs.
The project will officially launch in June as Canavero begins recruiting staff for the procedure. It could take place as early as next year. If this doesn’t work, there’s always the Futurama-style head in a jar.
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