Chinese medical team performs rare surgery for "head-body separation" injury
A team at a Shanghai hospital in east China has successfully performed a rare surgery on a patient whose neck was hit by a mechanical arm so severely that his cervical spine was almost completely dislocated, meaning his head was almost separated from his body, Xinhua reports.
The injured patient, initially given almost no chance of survival, is now on a promising path to recovery.
Chen Huajiang, director of the cervical spine surgery ward at the Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, who has over three decades of experience, has encountered numerous critical cervical spine injuries, but none was so extreme like this case.
The patient was admitted to the hospital in June. The devastating impact of the incident resulted in immediate high-level paralysis and cardiac arrest. Emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation restored faint signs of life.
"We scoured domestic and international literature and found no documented cases of cervical spine separation this severe -- let alone any survivors post-treatment," Chen recalled. In this case, surgery was the only hope, yet it was extremely perilous. "Even if there's only a sliver of hope, we are willing to try."
After nearly three hours of high-risk effort, a critical breakthrough was achieved. The team not only accurately reduced the fully dislocated cervical spine but also pioneered a "satellite plate" technique -- a method using an additional small plate for enhanced reinforcement.
On a vertebral body merely 24-26 mm wide, they successfully implanted dual plates and dual cages, ingeniously reinforcing the construct with an auxiliary plate to achieve exceptional stability through a single anterior approach.
This innovative support functioned like a "pillar of stability," providing immediate structural integrity to the critically damaged cervical spine and reducing the need for a second surgery. "This technique has never been applied in such an extreme case before," Chen said.
"It might look like we're working on bones, but actually, we're handling countless vessels and nerves. A second attempt? That could mean ruptured vessels, a surgical field flooded with blood, and total failure," Chen said in describing the tense surgical atmosphere.
Fortunately, none of the anticipated complications materialized, and the surgery proved a success. "The patient was weaned off vasopressors on the same day as the surgery, and respiratory function improved without significant pulmonary infection," Chen said. Thanks to meticulous care, the patient overcame multiple critical challenges and was discharged on July 9.
Encouragingly, he has been off the ventilator for up to 36 hours continuously, has regained movement in his upper limbs and shoulders, and is showing positive signs of neurological recovery -- step by step progressing toward functional restoration. That said, the severity of the spinal cord injury means that rehabilitation will be long and arduous.
The success of this exceptionally rare and complex surgery quickly garnered attention within the domestic spinal surgery community -- with experts across the country seeking to learn from the achievement. "We will continue to push into the uncharted territory of cervical spine surgery, constantly challenging the limits of what is technically possible," Chen said.
Earlier, it was reported that the Chinese doctors have implanted the world's smallest artificial heart in a 7-year-old boy.
