Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has said plans for a human head transplant are on track for 2017 following a successful experiment on a dog, where 90% of its spinal cord was severed and re-attached.
He and scientists from across the globe also claim to have performed operations to fuse spinal cords on mice with a success rate of just over 50%.
In one study by scientists at the University in Seoul, 16 mice had their spinal cords severed. Eight were treated with a chemical called polyethylene glycol (PEG), which is thought to help reconnect the spinal cord. After four weeks, five of the eight mice had regained some movement. All the others died.
Canavero announced his plans to carry out the world's first human head transplant in 2015. Shortly after, Valery Spiridonov – a 31-year-old Russian man suffering from the degenerative Werdnig-Hoffman disease – volunteered to be Canavero's first patient.
Canavero says the operation would involve cooling down the patient's head to around -15C. The heads of the patient and donor would be severed and the patient's would be attached to the donor. Finally the spinal cords would be fused together and muscle blood supply would be established. The patient would be kept in a coma for around a month to stop movement. Electrodes would be used to stimulate the spinal cord, IBT reports.
