|
Head Transplants
A head transplant or full body transplant is an experimental surgery, surgical operation involving the grafting of one organism's head onto the body of another. In many experiments, the recipient's head has not been removed, but in others it has been. Experimentation in animals began in the early 1900s. , no lasting successes have been achieved. Medical challenges There are three main technical challenges. As with any organ transplant, managing the immune response to avoid transplant rejection is necessary. Also, the brain is highly dependent on perfusion, continuous flow of blood to provide oxygen and nutrients and remove waste products, with damage setting in quickly at normal temperatures when ischemia, blood flow is cut off. Finally, managing the nervous systems in both the body and the head is essential, in several ways. The autonomic nervous system controls essential functions like breathing and the heart beating and is governed largely by the brain stem; if the recipient b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surgery
Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery such as gastric bypass), to reconstruct or alter aesthetics and appearance (cosmetic surgery), or to remove unwanted tissue (biology), tissues (body fat, glands, scars or skin tags) or foreign bodies. The act of performing surgery may be called a surgical procedure or surgical operation, or simply "surgery" or "operation". In this context, the verb "operate" means to perform surgery. The adjective surgical means pertaining to surgery; e.g. surgical instruments, operating theater, surgical facility or surgical nurse. Most surgical procedures are performed by a pair of operators: a surgeon who is the main operator performing the surgery, and a surgical assistant who provides in-procedure manual assistance during surgery. Modern surgical opera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Demikhov
Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov (; 31 July 1916 – 22 November 1998) was a Soviet Russian scientist and organ transplantation pioneer, who performed several transplants in the 1940s and 1950s, including the transplantation of a heart into an animal and a heart–lung replacement in an animal. He is also well known for his dog head transplants, which he conducted during the 1950s, resulting in two-headed dogs. This ultimately led to the head transplants in monkeys by Robert White, who was inspired by Demikhov's work. Early life Vladimir P. Demikhov was born on July 31, 1916, into a family of Russian peasants living on a small farmstead in the northern part of Russia's Volgograd region. His father, Peter Yakovlevich Demikhov was killed during the Russian Civil War when Demikhov was about three years old, so he and his brother and sister were raised by their mother, Domnika Alexandrovna, who managed to provide them with a good education. He began to show an interest in the ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood Substitutes
A blood substitute (also called artificial blood or blood surrogate) is a substance used to mimic and fulfill some functions of biological blood. It aims to provide an alternative to blood transfusion, which is transferring blood or blood-based products from one person into another. Thus far, there are no well-accepted ''oxygen-carrying'' blood substitutes, which is the typical objective of a red blood cell transfusion; however, there are widely available non-blood volume expanders for cases where only volume restoration is required. These are helping care providers avoid the risks of disease transmission and immune suppression, address the chronic blood donor shortage, and address the concerns of Jehovah's Witnesses and others who have religious objections to receiving transfused blood. The main categories of "oxygen-carrying" blood substitutes being pursued are hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOC) and perfluorocarbon emulsions. Oxygen therapeutics are in clinical trial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Targeted Temperature Management
Targeted temperature management (TTM), previously known as therapeutic hypothermia or protective hypothermia, is an active treatment that tries to achieve and maintain a specific body temperature in a person for a specific duration of time in an effort to improve health outcomes during recovery after a period of stopped blood flow to the brain. This is done in an attempt to reduce the risk of tissue injury following lack of blood flow. Periods of poor blood flow may be due to cardiac arrest or the blockage of an artery by a clot as in the case of a stroke. Targeted temperature management improves survival and brain function following resuscitation from cardiac arrest. Evidence supports its use following certain types of cardiac arrest in which an individual does not regain consciousness. The target temperature is often between 32 and 34 °C. Targeted temperature management following traumatic brain injury is of unclear benefit. While associated with some complications, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Axis (anatomy)
In anatomy, the axis (from Latin ''axis'', "axle") is the second cervical vertebra (C2) of the spine, immediately inferior to the atlas, upon which the head rests. The spinal cord passes through the axis. The defining feature of the axis is its strong bony protrusion known as the dens, which rises from the superior aspect of the bone. Structure The body is deeper in front or in the back and is prolonged downward anteriorly to overlap the upper and front part of the third vertebra. It presents a median longitudinal ridge in front, separating two lateral depressions for the attachment of the longus colli muscles. Dens The dens, also called the odontoid process, or the peg, is the most pronounced projecting feature of the axis. The dens exhibits a slight constriction where it joins the main body of the vertebra. The condition where the dens is separated from the body of the axis is called ''os odontoideum'' and may cause nerve and circulation compression syndrome. On its an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spinal Muscular Atrophy
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a rare neuromuscular disorder that results in the loss of motor neurons and progressive muscle wasting. It is usually diagnosed in infancy or early childhood and if left untreated it is the most common genetic cause of infant death. It may also appear later in life and then have a milder course of the disease. The common feature is the progressive weakness of voluntary muscles, with the arm, leg, and respiratory muscles being affected first. Associated problems may include poor head control, difficulties swallowing, scoliosis, and joint contractures. The age of onset and the severity of symptoms form the basis of the traditional classification of spinal muscular atrophy into a number of types. Spinal muscular atrophy is due to an abnormality (mutation) in the ''SMN1'' gene which encodes SMN, a protein necessary for the survival of motor neurons. Loss of these neurons in the spinal cord prevents signalling between the brain and skeletal mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergio Canavero
Sergio Canavero (born 1964) is an Italian neurosurgeon known for his controversial claims about the near-term feasibility of head transplantation—the grafting of a head onto a new body—in humans. He made headlines in 2015 when he publicly announced that he would perform such a procedure on a human in two years' time. In 2017, Canavero and colleagues performed a rehearsal head transplantation procedure on two cadavers, and he announced his intention to "imminently" perform the operation on a live human patient paralyzed from the neck down. Life and education Canavero grew up in Turin, northern Italy near France, to a poor family. He has described his upbringing as rough. He enrolled for medicine at the University of Turin at age 18 and graduated. In the mid-1980s, he began to train as a functional neurosurgeon at the University Hospital in Turin before being employed at the same venue. He worked for 22 years as a neurosurgeon (including being the Director of the Turin Advanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xiaoping Ren
Ren Xiaoping (; born 1961) is a Chinese orthopedic surgeon, and is most well-known for being part of the team that achieved the first hand transplant in China. , he was a controversial figure as he announced his intent to perform a human head transplant, an operation that has never been done before. Many criticized Ren, stating that the surgery would be impossible. Education and early work Ren attended the Harbin Medical University in Harbin, China, and received his M.D. in 1984. From 1996 to 2000, he continued his education, performing research relating to anatomy and hand surgery. During this period, specifically on January 25, 1999, the first hand transplant was performed on Mathew Scott. Ren was an influential figure in this achievement. Head transplant Mouse experiments Prior to his announcement of attempting the first human head transplant, Ren had spent years performing the same surgery on mice. However, the results of most of the experiments ended with the subj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eye Movement
Eye movement includes the voluntary or involuntary movement of the eyes. Eye movements are used by a number of organisms (e.g. primates, rodents, flies, birds, fish, cats, crabs, octopus) to fixate, inspect and track visual objects of interests. A special type of eye movement, rapid eye movement, occurs during REM sleep. The eyes are the visual organs of the human body, and move using a system of six muscles. The retina, a specialised type of tissue containing photoreceptors, senses light. These specialised cells convert light into electrochemical signals. These signals travel along the optic nerve fibers to the brain, where they are interpreted as vision in the visual cortex. Primates and many other vertebrates use three types of voluntary eye movement to track objects of interest: smooth pursuit, vergence shifts and saccades. These types of movements appear to be initiated by a small cortical region in the brain's frontal lobe. This is corroborated by removal of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deep Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest
Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) is a surgical technique in which the temperature of the body falls significantly (between 20 °C (68 °F) to 25 °C (77 °F)) and blood circulation is stopped for up to one hour. It is used when blood circulation to the brain must be stopped because of delicate surgery within the brain, or because of surgery on large blood vessels that lead to or from the brain. DHCA is used to provide a better visual field during surgery due to the cessation of blood flow. DHCA is a form of carefully managed clinical death in which heartbeat and all brain activity cease. When blood circulation stops at normal body temperature (37 °C), permanent damage occurs in only a few minutes. More damage occurs after circulation is restored. Reducing body temperature extends the time interval that such stoppage can be survived. At a brain temperature of 14 °C, blood circulation can be safely stopped for 30 to 40 minutes. There is an in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metabolism
Metabolism (, from ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes; the conversion of food to building blocks of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and some carbohydrates; and the elimination of metabolic wastes. These enzyme-catalyzed reactions allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their Structures#Biological, structures, and respond to their environments. The word ''metabolism'' can also refer to the sum of all chemical reactions that occur in living organisms, including digestion and the transportation of substances into and between different cells, in which case the above described set of reactions within the cells is called intermediary (or intermediate) metabolism. Metabolic reactions may be categorized as ''catabolic''—the ''breaking down'' of compounds (for example, of glucose to pyruvate by c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert J
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, renown, godlike" and ''berht'' "bright, light, shining"). It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin.Reaney & Wilson, 1997. ''Dictionary of English Surnames''. Oxford University Press. It is also in use as a surname. Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert. After becoming widely used in Continental Europe, the name entered England in its Old French form ''Robert'', where an Old English cognate form (''Hrēodbēorht'', ''Hrodberht'', ''Hrēodbēorð'', ''Hrœdbœrð'', ''Hrœdberð'', ''Hrōðberχtŕ'') had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto. Robert is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including En ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
