An Italian neurosurgeon’s project to undertake the first human head transplant has received a skeptical welcome in the United States, where he made a pitch to donors and fellow scientists.
Sergio Canavero, who leads the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, first announced his project in 2013, saying at the time that such a procedure could be possible as soon as 2016.
But this timeline seems extremely unlikely given the numerous obstacles and gaps in knowledge.
Canavero, who made a 2.5-hour presentation Friday at a conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopedic Surgeons in Annapolis, Maryland, met for the first time there a man who volunteered for the world’s first head transplant.
Russian-born Valery Spiridonov, 30, suffers from Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, which is a progressive and incurable wasting ailment. He was among the 150-some conference participants.
Invited to speak at the start of the conference, Canavero described at length how he would mend a severed spinal cord — a crucial factor in any such surgery — and described advances in the field, especially on animals.
The secret is to use a nano blade to cut the cord, then polyethylene glycol and an electrical current to accelerate the reconnection of severed nerve fibers.
But he admitted his knowledge was incomplete and didn’t go into much detail about the profusion of other major problems that could be expected with such an unfathomably drastic operation.
Among those issues is how to maintain and restore blood flow to the brain, or how to reconnect the parasympathetic nervous system, a key component of an organism’s automatic functions.
Sergio Canavero, who leads the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, first announced his project in 2013, saying at the time that such a procedure could be possible as soon as 2016.
But this timeline seems extremely unlikely given the numerous obstacles and gaps in knowledge.
Canavero, who made a 2.5-hour presentation Friday at a conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopedic Surgeons in Annapolis, Maryland, met for the first time there a man who volunteered for the world’s first head transplant.
Russian-born Valery Spiridonov, 30, suffers from Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, which is a progressive and incurable wasting ailment. He was among the 150-some conference participants.
Invited to speak at the start of the conference, Canavero described at length how he would mend a severed spinal cord — a crucial factor in any such surgery — and described advances in the field, especially on animals.
The secret is to use a nano blade to cut the cord, then polyethylene glycol and an electrical current to accelerate the reconnection of severed nerve fibers.
But he admitted his knowledge was incomplete and didn’t go into much detail about the profusion of other major problems that could be expected with such an unfathomably drastic operation.
Among those issues is how to maintain and restore blood flow to the brain, or how to reconnect the parasympathetic nervous system, a key component of an organism’s automatic functions.
WELL... Lets all await the outcome!
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