Head Transplant: terminally ill man set to undergo the world's first full head transplant

Valery Spiridonov is set to become the first person to undergo a head transplant and hopes it could be as soon as next year.

He is ready to put his trust in controversial surgeon Dr Sergio Canavero who claims he can cut off his head and attach it to a healthy body.

Mr Spiridonov, 30, a computer scientist from Russia, said: 'My decision is final and I do not plan to change my mind.'

As a lifelong sufferer of the rare genetic Werdnig-Hoffman muscle wasting disease, he says he wants the chance of a new body before he dies.

'Am I afraid? Yes, of course I am. But it is not just very scary, but also very interesting,' said Mr Spiridonov from his home in Vladimir, a city 120 miles east of Moscow. 

'But you have to understand that I don't really have many choices', he said. 'If I don't try this chance my fate will be very sad. With every year my state is getting worse.'

Dr Canavero and Mr Spiridonov have talked via Skype though they have not met yet and the doctor has not reviewed his medical records.

The Italian told CNN he has received many email and letters from people seeking the procedure but he insists the first patients will be people suffering from a muscle wasting disease.

Dr Canavero has named the procedure HEAVEN, which is an acronym for head anastomosis venture. Anastomosis involves the surgical connecting of two parts. 

He insists all the necessary techniques already exist to transplant a head onto a donor body.

The first monkey head transplant was performed 45 years ago and a basic operation on a mouse was carried out in China recently.

But critics say Dr Canavero's plans are 'pure fantasy'. The Italian has been compared to the fictional gothic-horror character Dr Frankenstein.

And Arthur Caplan, the director of medical ethics at New York University's Langone Medical Centre, has described Dr Canavero as 'nuts'.

Dr Hunt Batjer, president elect of the American Association for Neurological Surgeons, told CNN: 'I would not wish this on anyone. I would not allow anyone to do it to me as there are a lot of things worse than death.'

The cost of the 36-hour operation, which could only be performed in the one of the world's most advanced operating theatres, has been estimated at £7.5million. 

The new body would come from a transplant donor who is brain dead but otherwise healthy.

Both donor and patient would have their head severed from their spinal cord at the same time, using an ultra-sharp blade to give a clean cut.

The patient's head would then be placed onto the donor's body and attached using what Canavero calls his 'magic ingredient' - a glue-like substance called polyethylene glycol - to fuse the two ends of the spinal cord together.

The muscles and blood supply would be stitched up, before the patient is put into a coma for four weeks to stop them from moving while the head and body heal together.

When they wake the patient should be able to move, feel their face and even speak with the same voice. Powerful immunosuppressant drugs should stop the new body from being rejected.

Critics say Dr Canavero has simplified the difficulties involved in reattaching a spinal cord.

The Italian doctor has also so far failed to secure funding for the staff of 150 doctors and nurses he believes are required to complete the procedure.

However, the Italian is confident he can successfully transplant a head on to another body.

And if successful, his pioneering procedure could give new hope to thousands of paralysed and disabled people.