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
A Lie of the Mind : 'Brain tumors are funny, but they're not hilarious.'
On the Fourth of July 2010 I was walking to the train with my favorite person ever, Mike O’Malley, and had several massive, uncontrollable seizures. [...] I am now under the care of new specialists because of an insurance issue, and am kind of starting from scratch again regarding treatment. This blog is meant to record this bizarre process.
posted by shakespeherian
on Mar 15, 2011 -
7 comments
Nil by Mouth is Roger Ebert's article about what life is like now that he doesn't eat or drink anymore, but is nourished by tube. And interesting reflection on what life can be like after thyroid cancer, and not as sad as you might think.
posted by kaszeta
on Jan 7, 2010 -
50 comments
"The Kindest Cut" A Colorado surgeon is helping to restore sensation, biological structure and self-esteem to victims of female genital mutilation. She's
"Trinidad's Transgender Rock Star"
Bowers performs the surgery free of charge, and the hospital caps its fees at $1,700. "...you cannot charge money to reverse a crime against humanity," she says. "Sexuality is a right."
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Oct 21, 2009 -
51 comments
Recently, a man's sight was
returned to him after losing it for 12 years. How did he do it? Surgeons drilled a hole through one of his canines, put a lens in it, and implanted the construct in his eye.
[more inside]
posted by scrutiny
on Jul 18, 2009 -
65 comments
[Warning: Not Safe For the Squeamish] "An Illustrated History of Trepanation":
Although the reasons for trepanning and the instruments used for the procedure differ with time and from culture to culture, the result is always the same: a hole in the head, usually made when the individual was fully conscious and, often, unanaesthetized. • • From an interview with
Heather Perry, who trepanned herself:
"I used a hand trepan initially, but that wasn't proving to be terribly successful. Then there was a problem with the people who owned the property we were staying in, so we decided we'd have to just leave it. I wrapped my head up in a towel and we got out of there. A couple of days later, we had another go. We abandoned the hand trepan and got an electric drill instead." • • And, of course, the home version of the game. [more inside]
posted by not_on_display
on Oct 16, 2008 -
71 comments
My Beautiful Mommy is a children's book for children whose mothers suddenly come home from the doctor with giant hooters, or significant amounts of fat suddenly missing. A
bold new market in childrens publishing awaits.
posted by jonson
on Apr 18, 2008 -
66 comments
Grow your own spare parts. At last we're regenerating properly. Scientists took stem cells from patients fat tissue, cultivated bone cells from them, crafted a nice comfy titanium cage where to grow and put the cage into man's abdomen. After 9 months, install new upper jaw.
posted by Free word order!
on Feb 1, 2008 -
36 comments
As
Armistice Day approaches an exhibition reveals a hidden side to the horror of World War I.
It contains
previously unseen images of British servicemen who suffered terrible facial injuries in the conflict.
The exhibition also tells the story of one surgeon -
Harold Gillies – who through his efforts to help them became known as the father of modern plastic surgery.
WARNING: Some of the following images are of a very graphic nature.
posted by infini
on Nov 3, 2007 -
8 comments
Dental Vacation Plans & Travel Packages For Single Men: At first thought, it may seem a bit strange to combine the objectives of romance and dental surgery or treatments - into a singles vacation package! But, if you are a single man who would like to seriously explore opportunities of finding a special woman and also have some dental health issues that you would seriously like to resolve, then why not?
posted by billysumday
on Aug 22, 2007 -
15 comments
Make Me Heal is an online community serving the needs of America's vast cosmetic surgery audience, with tips & tricks on what works best to heal scarring, etc, including an encyclopedia
of terms. To promote their vision of "Celebrating Natural Beauty With Enhancement" they're hosting the first ever
Plastic Surgery Beauty Enhancement Awards, with categories like
Best Breast Augmentation (NSFW) and Best Male Liposuction." Contestants must submit before, during & after shots of the procedure, and site visitors can vote on their favorites.
posted by jonson
on Jul 2, 2007 -
26 comments
New surgical
robots are not only capable of working more precisely than human hands, but they have no metal or electrical parts, so will work under
MRI machines on tumors that would otherwise be invisible. The NeuroArm will set you back $27 million, but may confer more karma than that trip to space.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium
on Apr 17, 2007 -
25 comments
Sgt. Wells's New Skull. In the epidemic of brain injuries coming out of the war, Army neurosurgeons had never seen someone survive such a devastating wound. But Brian Wells jokes that he just left part of his head in Iraq. Someday, he says, he'll have to go back and get it.
posted by srboisvert
on Mar 15, 2007 -
21 comments
Inside Surgery, Dr. Lisa Marcucci's surgical blog, will give you a lovely preview of exactly what they'll be doing to your guts, from
gallbladder surgery to
appendectomy,
artery plaque removal,
hemorrhoid removal, and more. Supplement the text with this extensive collection of
surgical videos (NSFW), and you'll be ready to operate -- or, at least, to understand what'll go on during your operation.
posted by vorfeed
on Dec 18, 2006 -
17 comments
The ultimate in outsourcing. Welcome to
India, where you can visit the Taj Mahal and get a new knee, all for under $10,000, airfare included. Of course, it's not just for Canadians whose health care system, while free, sometimes necessitates lengthy waits for important surgical procedures.
The uninsured in the US and other nations are a potential market as well. And there's potential for medical tourism destinations
in the US as well.
posted by greatgefilte
on Jun 17, 2006 -
38 comments
The strange story of Henry M.
Henry was able to hold information in storage for very short periods of time. Most people can retain about seven pieces of information (a telephone number, for example) in memory for about thirty seconds, and Henry scored normally on these kinds of tasks. Thus, his working memory (or scratch-pad memory) seemed unaffected by the loss of his hippocampus. The main problem for Henry was converting short-term memories into permanent storage, a process called consolidation. Henry's case is one of the
most studied brain-damage cases [PDF] ever. A fascinating story about one man's struggle with brain surgery.
posted by KevinSkomsvold
on Jan 25, 2006 -
17 comments
First Brain-Powered Bionic Prosthesis Jesse Sullivan is the
first man (link to press release) to recieve a ground breaking new bionic arm (
PDF fact sheet) that is controlled by his mind and a 64-bit microprocessor. His new arm, that even allows him to "feel" objects, is the result of a radical surgical process called nerve-transfer surgery that took nerves going to his arms and rerouted them to his chest.
Want to see it in action?
1,
2,
3 (embedded QT links) and some
images of Jesse in action.
Previous MeFi bionic threads.
posted by fenriq
on Sep 14, 2005 -
40 comments
