Nowadays, whatever we considered as critical and life risking surgeries such as Heart transplant, Liver transplant, and other organs transplantations are now no more critical surgeries. Because the world famous Italian Neurologist Sergio Canavero is planning for a human head transplantation in December 2017. Many of you aware that he announced about this critical and life risking surgery on 2015. When first announced public opinion about the potential head transplant was generic quite negative. As per the surgeon Mr. Canavero, The operation requires 150 specialized doctors and $11 million dollars. This announcement made a tsunami in a medical science as 90% of actors across the world thinks it’s impossible to do.

What is head transplant?

A head transplant is a surgical operation involving the grafting or decapitating of one organism’s head into the body of another. Head is the very critical part of organism’s body which controls and maintains complete body. So, this surgery has been considered most critical and life risking surgery in medical history.

History of Head Transplant
 
At first, Successful head transplantation performed on Dogs by the American physiologist on May 21, 1908. Vladimir Demikhov experimented with dog head transplantation in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. His transplant subjects typically died due to immune reactions. The neurosurgeon Robert. J. White who was inspired by the work of Vladimir Demikhov successfully performed head transplantation on a monkey. The procedure was successful up to some extent, with the animal being able to smell, taste, hear, and see the world around it. However, the monkey died nine days later. 

Who is going to perform human head transplant?

Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero who is researching about head transplant for over 30 years planning to perform human head transplantation on or before December 2017 with the latest technology and 150 specialized doctors. He plans the surgery either in US or China.

Who is the head, donor?

Valery Spiridonov, a 31-year-old Russian software programmer who suffers from Werdnig–Hoffmann disease and rapidly declining health, has volunteered to offer his head for the study. Valery says that he is doing this surgery to recover from all his disability and to take care himself without any bodies help. On TV show interview Doctor Canavero said that this operation will cost $11 million dollars and he is 90% confident about the success of this operation.

Procedure of the Surgery

This really such a complicated process and the surgeon planning this operation says it will take around 150 medical staff 36 hours to complete. The first step is to freeze the head and body in order to stop the brain cells from dying. The neck will be then cut and the tubes connecting the key arteries and veins fitted. The next would be the biggest challenge now. This is cutting the spinal cord and doctors will be using an extremely fine blade made from diamonds to minimize the damage here. Then the head will be moved from the donor body and the spinal cords will be fused together using the special type of Glue (PEG- Polyethylene glycol). Now, once all that in place it’s a race against time to reattach all the remaining muscles, veins and the organs like the esophagus. Once the skin is stitched together by a plastic surgeon, the patient will be kept in an induced coma for four weeks to allow everything to heal. It really is an extremely intricate procedure. 

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