The world's first monkey to successfully "change its head", the operation cost 70 million in 18 hours, what is the current situation

When faced with the word "change heads", most people's first reaction may be rejection and fear. Not only because of the extreme difficulty of this operation, but also because of the fact that even if the operation is successful, whether this "new body" is considered "oneself" is also an esoteric question. But for Valery Donov, a Russian computer scientist, it may have been his dream for years. Because he has suffered from congenital muscular dystrophy since he was a child, he can feel the deterioration of his physical condition every year, and he really can't bear the devastation of the disease. In order to have a healthy body before leaving this world, he took the initiative to accept the "head transplant" proposed by surgeon Sergio Canavero. However, the surgery scheduled for 2016 has not been carried out for a long time, and Donov and Canavero have not even met. But during this period (January 21, 2016), Canavero revealed to the media a shocking news - "Chinese researchers have successfully 'changed the head' of a monkey." ”

The Chinese researcher, Ren Xiaoping, is the chief physician at Harbin Medical University on the mainland. As early as 2001, Dr. Ren Xiaoping participated in the first successful "allogeneic hand transplant" completed by the Crannath Hand Microsurgery Center at the University of Louisville in the United States, and the case has successfully survived for 15 years after surgery, which has brought a huge shock to the medical community. After that, "head transplantation" became a new research project for Dr. Ren Xiaoping. As an expert in the field, Canavero quickly found Ren Xiaoping, and the two became partners, so there was a "head transplant" in 2016.

First, they will freeze the monkey head to -15°C to ensure that the monkey survives the procedure and does not damage the brain. Then, Ren Xiaoping took the knife to connect the monkey's head with the new body. Of course, "head replacement surgery" is a very complex technique, and it took Ren Xiaoping's team 18 hours and 70 million yuan to complete the operation. In the end, the monkey survived, but Ren Xiaoping did not succeed in docking the spinal nerves in the monkey's head and the spinal cord nerves in the new body, causing the monkey's body below the neck to fall into a "paralyzed state", and it was impossible to determine whether the monkey felt pain after waking up. Out of ethical considerations, Ren Xiaoping's team chose to euthanize the monkeys 20 hours after the operation.

To this day, no doctor in the world has been able to completely reconnect the separated bone marrow nerves. Because the bone marrow contains millions of neural connections, it is almost impossible to restore them one by one. However, after Ren Xiaoping's team completed the "head replacement surgery" on the monkey, it still brought new hope to the human medical community. After the surgery, many patients called Dr. Ren Xiaoping and expressed their willingness to become volunteers. However, due to the limitations of current technology, Ren Xiaoping could only politely refuse them. Perhaps one day in the future, the spinal nerve connection technology can really become a reality, and then people like Donov who suffer from congenital muscle atrophy will have the opportunity to usher in a "rebirth".

Each of us has a different view of the highly likely future human "head transplant surgery". Whether this technology will become a reality, and whether people will be able to accept this surgery, is still a hotly debated topic. But in any case, the continuous progress of science and technology and the continuous innovation of medicine are opening up new possibilities for us. Perhaps, in the near future, we will be able to witness a miracle of medicine that will bring new life to those who have suffered from illness.