Hong Kong Trial Tests Controversial Surgery for Alzheimer's Patients After China Bans Unregulated Use
Key Insights
A surgical procedure for Alzheimer's disease (search) pioneered in Hangzhou in 2018 is now under controlled clinical investigation at CUHK following a national ban on its unregulated use in July 2025.
CUHK researchers have obtained regulatory approval and recruited four patients, with one described by his wife as a "completely new person… so sharp" after recovery.
China's National Health Commission (search) banned the procedure's unregulated application due to safety and effectiveness concerns, pledging to review it once sufficient evidence becomes available.
A surgical procedure for Alzheimer's disease (search) that sparked both hope and controversy across mainland China is now undergoing rigorous clinical evaluation in Hong Kong, as researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) seek to determine whether the intervention can meaningfully restore patients' ability to perform basic daily activities.
The procedure was first pioneered by a mainland Chinese doctor in Hangzhou as early as 2018 and rapidly gained nationwide traction, propelled by viral social media videos that depicted dramatic post-operative transformations in patients. However, mounting uncertainty regarding its safety and efficacy prompted China's National Health Commission (search) to ban its unregulated use in July 2025, with a commitment to revisit the evidence when sufficient data became available.
CUHK researchers secured approval last year and have since recruited four patients for clinical trials. Early anecdotal outcomes appear striking: one patient recovered so well that his wife described him as a "completely new person … so sharp," suggesting meaningful improvements in cognition and daily functioning.
Dr. Tor Chiu, an honorary associate professor of surgery at CUHK, articulated the trial's core objective. His research team, he said, hopes to verify whether the procedure, when performed under strict scientific controls, could improve the condition of Alzheimer's patients. The team is actively recruiting additional potential patients to expand the study.
The procedure's trajectory—from grassroots clinical experimentation to regulatory crackdown and now to controlled investigation—reflects broader tensions in Alzheimer's therapeutic development, where desperate patient demand can outpace the generation of robust clinical evidence. The CUHK trial represents an effort to bridge that gap, subjecting the surgical approach to the methodological rigor required to establish both safety and efficacy.
The potential benefits under investigation include improvements in patients' ability to manage basic self-care tasks such as getting dressed and remaining socially engaged—functional outcomes that carry profound implications for quality of life and caregiver burden in a disease that progressively erodes independence.