"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."

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posted by zarq on Oct 21, 2009 - 51 comments

Claudia Castillo's new bronchus is the result of stem-cell research. The first hollow tube body part is transplanted with no rejection issues. A lab in Italy stripped the donor trachea of living tissue leaving a collagen matrix. Claudia's stem cells were grown in a Bristol lab, (all 6 million of them) to flesh it out, so to speak. Epithelial cells from her nose & lungs formed the lining. But...... [more inside]
posted by Wilder on Nov 19, 2008 - 37 comments

Lancet reports say partial face transplants are a reality. Face transplant before and after pictures here.
posted by NikitaNikita on Aug 22, 2008 - 28 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

OR-Live is a resource for live and on-demand medical webcasts. Upcoming today at 21:00 UTC, surgeons at St. Joseph's Hospital host a panel discussion on procedures for treating brain aneurysms, such as brain coiling and clipping. And if you just can't wait, there are plenty of other surgical videos on the web.
posted by milquetoast on Aug 1, 2006 - 7 comments

Living with half a brain - hemispherectomy, probably the most radical procedure in neurosurgery
posted by Gyan on Jun 29, 2006 - 50 comments

Project Facade: (Warning Graphic Images) An artistic response to the Gillies Archive. The Gillies archive is a collection of documents on plastic surgery conducted on British soldiers in WWI. The web site has a list of facial reconstruction case studies. Sir Harold Delf Gillies pioneered the pedicle tube technique for facial reconstrucion.
posted by obedo on Sep 25, 2005 - 7 comments

RIP Hamilton Naki, the black surgeon working unrecognised behind the scenes at Christiaan Barnard's pioneering South African heart transplant.
posted by iffley on Jun 21, 2005 - 7 comments

Surgical Eyes - source of info about complications and their treatment from Lasik and other vision correction surgeries.
posted by Gyan on Jan 31, 2005 - 35 comments

Surgery without anesthesia is something most of us are glad is now a relic of the past, but yoga teacher Yonah Offner decided it was a great opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of practicing Pranayama.
posted by 4easypayments on Sep 17, 2003 - 8 comments

Medical fotolog. [warning -- graphic surgical photos]
posted by monju_bosatsu on Aug 6, 2003 - 15 comments

All your face are belong to us. 16-yr-old Irish girl looks set to receive the world's first face transplant, it has been reported. Right now it's a medical procedure, but do you think we ever see a day where people grow face replacements for cosmetic purposes?
posted by piskycritter on Apr 7, 2003 - 22 comments

Face Transplants : "...the harvesting or ''degloving'' of a face would take approximately two hours, depending on the depth of the excision. It is possible to remove not just skin and subcutaneous fat and muscle but....part of the donor's bone and cartilage as well. Still, the deeper the cut, the more complex becomes the reattachment."
posted by troutfishing on Mar 12, 2003 - 10 comments

Doctor, I've got a clamp... I mean, a cramp... Surgical teams accidentally leave clamps, sponges and other tools inside about 1,500 patients nationwide each year, according to the biggest study of the problem yet. (yummy Xray here).
posted by sparky on Jan 16, 2003 - 11 comments

And, remember....have your Game Show Host spayed or neutered. Why are all the memories of my youth continuing to remind me that I'm getting old? Arg. Guess it's time for me to get an exam, too.
posted by dwivian on Jul 9, 2002 - 4 comments

Ow my head hurts Doctors operate on the wrong part of a mans brain because the CT scan is placed backwards on the viewing screen. Doh!
posted by zeoslap on Feb 26, 2001 - 3 comments