Head transplant breakthrough claimed: doctors Ren Xiaoping and Sergio Canavero say they repaired fully severed spinal cords in animals
- Dogs and monkeys whose spinal cords had been ‘fully transected’ were able to walk after the ‘unprecedented’ reattachment surgery, surgeons claim
- Chinese surgeon Ren Xiaoping says human trials should begin soon
Surgeons from China and Italy claimed that two studies published Wednesday add evidence to their ability to treat “irreversible” spinal-cord injuries in order to perform the world’s first human head transplant.
Ren Xiaoping and Sergio Canavero said the new work they published in a scientific journal showed that monkeys and dogs were able to walk again after their spinal cords were “fully transected” during surgery and then put back together again. The neurosurgeons described the results as medically “unprecedented”.
The highly experimental procedures took place at Harbin Medical University in China. Both studies were supported by video evidence and published in Surgical Neurology International, a peer-reviewed medical journal based in the United States.
Canavero, who is based in Turin, Italy, and has a reputation in the global medical community as something of a sensationalist, said that for too long neurological surgeons have “stuck to the view that a severed spinal cord cannot be mended in any way, a mantra uncritically repeated over and over”.