Groundbreaking Surgery for Girl Born Without Windpipe: [New York Times] — Using plastic fibers and human cells, doctors have built and implanted a windpipe in a 2 ½-year-old girl — the youngest person ever to receive a bioengineered organ.
posted by Fizz on Apr 30, 2013 - 15 comments

Woman, 83, Has World’s First Lower Jaw Replacement – In 3D [abc.com] In what has been called the first operation of its kind, an 83-year-old woman in the Netherlands has been fitted with a custom-made artificial jaw that was created by a 3D printer. The titanium implant, which weighs less than 4 ounces, was created by taking a CT scan of the woman’s lower jaw and duplicating it with a 3D printer that lays down titanium powder instead of ink. The printer followed the pattern of the woman’s jaw bone layer by layer, fusing the titanium powder in place with heat. In just a couple hours, the 3D replica was ready.
posted by Fizz on Feb 7, 2012 - 43 comments

Indian man has hysterectomy after doctors find uterus. The 35 year-old farmer and father of two had a full female reproductive system, which was removed from his stomach at a Chhindwara district hospital. Joan Rivers is probably not surprised.
posted by Laminda on Aug 3, 2011 - 29 comments

A young woman writes about her breast reduction.
posted by reenum on May 18, 2011 - 99 comments

Baby's 'second head' to be removed by surgery "This parasitic formation is fed by and drains off the blood supply system of [baby’s] head." "This is medical history,"... The condition, known formally as Cranio Pagus Parasiticus, is extremely rare, with only seven other cases ever reported.
posted by dfowler on Feb 6, 2004 - 43 comments