Sergio Kanavero: "A head transplant will take place in 2017, and a brain transplant in 2018"

Surely many people remember the Italian neurosurgeonSergio Canavero, who intended to carry out a human head transplant. Since then, it seemed, apart from the statements, nothing new happened anymore, but as it turned out, all this time Mr. Kanavero was preparing not only for a head transplant operation, but also more extensive brain transplant manipulation.

In addition to the ambitious plan, the firstSergio's patient. Earlier, the first patient was to be Russian Valery Spiridonov with a diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy, but now the right to be the first has passed to a resident of China, whose name has not yet been called. The Chinese colleague Sergio Shaoping Rehn also participates in the conduct and preparation for the operation, and the patient’s choice will depend on the availability of a compatible donor.

Changed the place of the operation: if earlier transplantation was planned in Germany or the UK, now the operation is being prepared on the territory of the Harbin Medical Center. Despite the still fantastic statement about the future success of this manipulation, a group of scientists have already managed to successfully transplant the head of one rat to the body and head of the second, using the blood flow of another rodent. With this, the surgeons protected the rats from blood loss and hypothermia. However, the donor rat clearly felt pain.

Unique surgery scheduled for Decemberthis year. If the operation succeeds, the Italian will start working in the direction of a brain transplant. According to the surgeon, on the one hand, this will be less difficult, since in this case it will not be necessary to transplant all the vessels, tendons, muscles and nerves. On the other hand, there may be problems of a different nature with the brain, for example, it is not known how the human brain will respond to the “replacement” of the body, besides the cranium will have a different configuration.

For his purposes, Sergio Canavero is goinguse the brains of people who have frozen their bodies. According to the expert, perhaps already in 2018, the first frozen patients will be able to return to life.