Jessie Thomas, a 33-year-old American woman, has a fist-sized bone tumor on her spine. According to the need of treatment, the doctor removed the tumor on the spine. After the operation, Jesse Thomas had to stay on a special shelf day and night, unable to move freely. In order to restore Jesse Thomas' mobility, 1979, 17 In July, doctors implanted an artificial metal spine on Jesse Thomas to replace the spine skeleton, which enabled her to regain the function of standing and walking, becoming the first person in the world to have a metal spine.

In fact, as early as June 1970, Shanghai Orthopedics Research Institute and Shanghai Ruijin Hospital successfully performed spinal transplantation for a 27-year-old male spinal giant cell tumor patient. This operation was replaced by medical stainless steel artificial vertebral body. Two months after operation, the patient's lower limb paralysis disappeared and he was able to get up after half a year. He has worked for many years.

Since 1970, research institutes and hospitals have performed four such operations, all of which were successful. However, this clinical achievement has not been spread in time internationally. For example, according to the actual situation, the successful time of spinal transplantation in China is obviously earlier than that in foreign countries.

Many scholars have studied the application of metals in human body. Research shows that when some structures of human body are damaged, some metals can replace these structures of human body. For example, metal tantalum rods can be used instead of bones, and muscles can grow on tantalum rods; Fracture can be repaired with titanium plate and titanium screw, and bone will grow in the hole of titanium plate and the thread of screw. This kind of metal that can replace some structures of human body is called "bionic metal".