[Medical] - A surgeon who aims to do the first human head
transplant says he's done another outlandish procedure
In a paper published June 14, Canavero details how he and a team
of surgeons severed then reconnected the spinal cords of a group of
mice using a type of plastic called polyethylene glycol (PEG). Canavero previously
described PEG in a TED Talk as "a special biological glue" that
could be the key to a successful future head transplant.
Canavero told Newsweek that this latest experiment is a leap
forward.
“Critics said the transected spinal cord is unrecoverable and
thus a human head transplant is impossible," he said. "The scans
show the reconstructed cord."
Surgeons first used PEG in a series of experiments conducted in
the 1930s and 1940s, in which they attempted to fuse the spinal
cords of dogs, giving them two heads. That's essentially what
Canavero claims to have done in April, when he described the
process of attaching the head of a mouse to the body of a rat. He
repeated the procedure in several other animals, creating a series
of two-headed rats which lived for an average of 36 hours.
In preparation for the latest experiment on mice, Canavero
performed what he called a "proof-of-concept" procedure on a dog.
He severed the animal's spinal cord then reconnected it — one of
the major obstacles to completing the procedure in people. He has
not released details on how long the dog lived, however.
In the most recent study, Canavero describes severing the spinal
cords of the mice then applying saline to the wound to stop the
bleeding. Then, nine of the mice were treated with PEG and had
their wounds sealed. Six mice were only treated with saline. Both
groups were given antibiotics after the procedure for 72 hours.
Canavero writes in the paper that the rodents who received PEG
recovered their motor function and were able to walk after 28 days.
Nevertheless, all of the rodents except one (who died even earlier)
only lived for a month.
https://sg.yahoo.com/finance/news/outlandish-surgeon-aims-first-head-173700056.html
