Doctors plan human head transplant in China

Dr Sergio Canavero wearing surgical gown will operate human head transplant in cooperation with Chinese surgeon Ren Xiaoping. / Screen capture from Twitter

The world’s first human head transplant will be performed at a hospital affiliated to Harbin Medical University in Heilongjiang, China, the British Daily Mail has reported.

According to the report, Chinese surgeon Ren Xiaoping and Italian doctor Sergio Canavero will in October 2017 cooperate to transplant the head of a Russian man, Valery Spiridonov, who has muscular atrophy, onto the body of a brain-dead donor.

Valery Spiridonov will be the first person to undergo head transplant. / Screen capture from Twitter

Dr. Xiaoping has transplanted the head of about 1,000 mice while Dr. Canavero has long studied the head transplant operation.

At the Frontier Science conference in north-east China, Dr. Canavero said: “This operation will change history by curing incurable medical conditions like muscular atrophy.”

He said the bodies of the patient and donor would be cooled to 12-15 degrees C before the heads were severed from their spinal cords using an ultra-sharp blade for a clean cut.

The patient's head would then be placed onto the donor's body and attached using what Dr Canavero calls his “magic ingredient” _ a specially developed glue-like substance called polyethylene glycol _ to fuse the two ends of the spinal cord.

The surgeons would then stitch the muscles, blood vessels and nerves together before placing Spiridonov into a four-week coma to recover.

“When Spiridonov wakes up, he will be able to move, feel the face and even speak with the same voice he had before” Dr Canavero said.

Dr. Canavero has long studied the head transplant operation.