Some Finer Points of a Head Transplant
It’s called cephalosomatic anastomosis, or in science fiction, a head transplant. Such an idea may always remain the stuff of dreams and nightmares, but researchers at Harbin Medical University in China have reported on at least how the vascular problems might be handled. Using rats, they say “The thoracic aorta and superior vena cava of a donor rat were anastomosed with the carotid artery and extracorporeal veins of a recipient rat by vascular grafts. Before thoracotomy in the donor rat, the axillary artery and vein of the donor were connected to the carotid and the extracranial vein of the third rat through a silicone tube. The silicone tube was passed through a peristaltic pump to ensure donor brain tissue blood supply. There is no ischemia reperfusion injury in donor brain tissue analyzed by electroencephalogram. Postoperative donor has pain reflex and corneal reflex.” From the rats’ viewpoint, successfully reestablishing the pain reflex wasn’t necessarily a good thing. MORE
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