Using animals for medical experiments is nothing new. However, in the late 1950s when Soviet surgeon Vladimir Demikhov carried out his infamous two-headed dog project, there was no precedence. He transplanted the head and forelegs of a small dog to a bigger one. The resultant two-headed animal lived for four days before sadly dying due to an accident. However, Demikhov was not trying to do bizarre experiments on animals in real life, like Dr Moreau. He aimed to understand organ transplantation, especially the vascular aspects of it. Let us now look at this detail of this odd experiment and how it was done.
Vladimir Demikhov: A Pioneer in Transplant Surgery
Vladimir P. Demikhov was born on July 31, 1916, in Russia’s Volgograd region. After losing his father during the Russian Civil War, he was raised by his mother, who prioritized education. Demikhov’s early interest in the mammalian circulatory system was inspired by Pavlov’s experimental work with dogs.
After leaving school, he worked as a mechanic before enrolling at Voronezh State University. In 1937, he created the world’s first artificial heart, successfully implanting it into a dog. His groundbreaking work was published in a university newspaper and presented at a scientific conference.
After serving in the Red Army during World War II, Demikhov returned to Moscow State University, where he continued his research in organ transplantation. He moved to the Institute of Surgery in 1947, focusing on heart, lung, liver, and kidney transplants. In the 1950s, he refined transplantation techniques, performing successful isolated orthotopic heart transplants.
The Two-headed Dog Projects
The first two-headed dog experiment was conducted in 1954. Demikhov’s procedure involved grafting the head and front paws of a smaller dog onto the neck of a larger host dog. This surgery required extreme precision, as Demikhov had to connect the two animals’ circulatory systems. The smaller dog’s head, though no longer attached to its body, had to receive blood through the host’s heart to stay alive.
Demikhov carried out this procedure 24 times with varying degrees of success. However, in 1959 a LIFE magazine photographer visited the USSR to witness the procedure. The resultant photos and story were the first time that ordinary people of the West heard about these experiments.
The little dog, a nine-year-old female named Shavka, was selected for the procedure. Demikhov explained that Shavka would serve as the “guest head,” while the larger dog, a mongrel he called “Brodyaga,” lay on the operating table, unconscious from anesthesia. Brodyaga, whose origins were unknown, had been picked up off the streets. Demikhov jokingly noted that “two heads are better than one.”
At that moment, another mongrel named Palma entered the room. Demikhov pointed out the fresh scars on Palma’s chest, explaining that the dog had recently undergone surgery to add an extra heart and modify its lung structure. Now fully recovered, Palma appeared almost normal.
The Procedure of the Two-Headed Dog Project
With his eccentric demeanor established, Demikhov detailed the bizarre surgery. They first made an incision at Brodyaga’s neck to expose key blood vessels and a section of the spinal column. They drilled holes in the vertebra and threaded plastic strings through them. Shavka was then anesthetized, her head and torso wrapped, leaving only the shaved area exposed. Once prepared, her body was positioned alongside Brodyaga.
As Demikhov and his assistant carefully cut and tied each blood vessel, they ultimately severed Shavka’s spinal column, making her head and forepaws reliant on the host’s heart and lungs for survival. The critical phase of connecting the blood vessels then began. In the end, this two-headed dog lived only for just four days. Had a vein in the neck area not accidentally gotten damaged, it may have lived even longer than Demikhov’s longest-living two-headed dog, which survived 29 days.
Between 1954 and 1965, Demikhov performed 24 more of these experiments. The longest-lived two-headed dog survived for 29 days. Most others lived between two and six days. Each time, Demikhov refined his technique, improving the connections between the two animals’ circulatory systems. His ability to keep both heads alive, even for a short period, was seen as an impressive feat in medical science.
Why Conduct Such the Two-Headed Dog Project?
Demikhov’s goal was not to create a biological curiosity but to advance the field of organ transplantation. In the 1950s, the medical community knew very little about how to successfully transplant organs without rejection. Demikhov believed that by studying how the circulatory systems of two dogs could function together, he could develop techniques to make human organ transplants more viable.
One of the key challenges in organ transplants is the body’s tendency to reject foreign tissue. Demikhov saw the two-headed dog experiment as a way to study tissue compatibility and rejection. His work contributed to the understanding of how to connect blood vessels, which is crucial for ensuring that transplanted organs receive adequate blood supply in humans. The insights gained from these surgeries later helped surgeons perform successful heart and lung transplants in humans. Demikhov’s pioneering work laid the foundation for future organ transplants and influenced medical practices worldwide
One of the most significant results of Demikhov’s work was his influence on other surgeons. Christiaan Barnard, who performed the first successful human heart transplant in 1967, twice visited Demikhov’s laboratory in Moscow, in 1960 and 1963. Barnard credited Demikhov’s work as essential to his own achievements, noting that many of the surgical techniques he used were inspired by Demikhov’s animal experiments.
Ethical Concerns and Criticism about the Two-Headed Dog Project
Despite the medical advancements that resulted from Demikhov’s work, his two-headed dog project raised serious ethical concerns. The dogs used in the two-headed dog project suffered significantly, both during and after surgery. The public reaction in the West, where animal rights movements were more active, was overwhelmingly negative. Many people felt that the suffering of the animals outweighed any potential benefits to medical science.
What Happened to Demikhov
In his 1960 monograph, Experimental Transplantation of Vital Organs, Vladimir Demikhov coined the term “transplantology” to describe organ transplantation. This influential work, translated into English, German, and Spanish, became the first comprehensive publication on the subject, attracting attention from physicians interested in organ and tissue transplantation. Demikhov joined the Sklifosovsky Institute of Emergency Medicine in 1960 and remained there until his retirement in 1986. He advocated for routine human organ transplantation using living organs rather than artificial ones. Initially met with skepticism, he addressed critics with calmness and welcomed medical professionals into his laboratory to observe his experiments. By the 1960s, American physicians began to recognize his innovative techniques, leading to increased interest in the possibility of human organ transplants.
Demikhov died at the age of 82 on November 22, 1998, as the result of an aneurysm, in his small apartment on the outskirts of Moscow. Although he received various honors later in life, including a USSR State Prize, the true value of Demikhov’s experiments was not acknowledged by Russia until the year of his death, when he was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd class, shortly before he died.
Conclusion
The two-headed dog experiment was one of the most audacious and controversial scientific endeavors of its time. Vladimir Demikhov’s work contributed to the development of modern organ transplantation techniques, though it raised ethical concerns that still resonate today. While his methods were extreme, the insights gained from these surgeries helped advance the field of transplantation, leaving a complex legacy in both science and ethics.
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