Spinal cord transplant for paralyzed victim.Credit to Chinese and Russian doctors

A medical miracle has been achieved. Doctors from China and Russia have created a record by performing a spinal cord transplant on a paralyzed man. They achieved this feat using special technology designed to graft tissues.

According to Chinese surgeon Ren Xiaoping, the doctors successfully completed the surgery after working for about 12 hours between October 14 and 15. In this operation, the damaged part of the patient's spinal cord was replaced with tissue collected from a brain-dead donor. Ren said that the procedure was performed at the Sklifosovsky Emergency Medical Research Institute in Russia. The patient had suffered a spinal cord injury three years ago. The damaged part was removed and the part collected from the donor was replaced in its place. Along with microsurgery, a substance called polyethylene glycol was used to connect the cell membranes. Ren described it as the world's first spinal cord transplant.

Ren revealed that his team from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, with the cooperation of Russian medical experts, successfully performed the surgery. He said that the patient's condition was stable after the surgery. However, Ren had previously vowed to perform the world's first human head transplant. Many medical experts are of the opinion that with the current spinal transplant, head transplants will achieve great success in the future.