Banjo played during brain surgery

Holy cow. I knew that many patients were left awake during brain surgery, but this is amazing.

Nashville native and legendary banjo picker Eddie Adcock developed essential tremor and thought his banjo picking days were over. Then surgeons offered him a surgical option.

The amazing thing about this story is that Adcock was awake during the entire procedure, not only was he awake but he also picked away at his banjo to help surgeons position the electrodes that were being placed. The surgery took place at the Vanderbilt Medical Center and was videotaped by the surgeon. You can watch the video of the surgery here or watch the Diane Sawyer story below.

Pictures of the first double arm transplant

Doctors in Germany performed the first ever double-arm transplant on a 54-year-old man July 25th and 26th. The man, a farmer, had lost both his arms six years ago in a farming accident. The donor was a 19-year-old from Augsburg in Bavaria who has not been named.

You can read the full article here, here and here.

Arthroscopic shoulder surgery video

I'm not sure if the patient is awake for this or if the doctor is just telling him/her on the video so that he/she can know what's going on once they wake up and watch the video.

Salamanders may hold the cure for amputees

Doctors are in the early stages of testing a powder that they hope will someday help people regrow amputated body parts and may even allow doctors to grow new internal organs such as hearts.

Surgeons in San Antonio, Texas used the special powder for the first time on a wounded soldier who lost a finger last year in Baghdad.

Army Sgt. Shiloh Harris' doctors applied specially formulated powder to what's
left of the finger in an effort to do for wounded soldiers what salamanders can
do naturally: replace missing body parts.

Harris' surgery is part of a major medical study of "regenerative medicine" being pursued by the Pentagon and several of the nation's top medical facilities, including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic. Nearly $250
million has been dedicated to the research.

Now this is something I'm happy to see the government is spending money on, something productive and helpful instead of expensive toilet seats and hookers.

The doctors say that their hope is to someday be able to grow internal organs in the lab for transplants. Let's hope this works, what a cool thing it would be to be able to get rid of the need for organ donors.

Rest of the story here and video on the surgery here

I think this world is getting a bit upside down

So it seems funny to me that so many illegal aliens are scrambling trying to come into this country for jobs and a better life, and then so many of our citizens are in turn going to these other countries for medical care. That really seems upside down and loopy to me.

It just hits me hard in the gut that so many people in our government and so many groups out there would spend millions of dollars and countless amounts of time and energy on things such as gay marriage and whether it should be legal, spending $100 million on unused airline tickets, donating $1.5 million to various halls of fame, the list goes on and on, and yet US citizens go to other countries such as Mexico for health care because it's cheaper. Carazzy.

Read the article here

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Lap Band Surgery

CATARACT SURGERY VIDEO

Here is a cataract surgery. There is no sound but still interesting.

A LITTLE BLOOD AND GUTS NEVER HURT ANYONE

I love watching Discovery Health and being able to see/hear about things I type about every day. One of my favorite things is watching surgeries. It's so fascinating to actually see what I usually only get to hear. I found this website that lets you watch live webcasts and view full surgery videos. If you don't mind blood and this sort of thing interests you then check it out.

http://www.or-live.com/

OUT THROUGH THE OLD YACKITY YACK

On Wednesday, March 12, 2008, surgeons at UC San Diego Medical Center performed what is believed to be the country's first removal of a diseased appendix through the mouth. This is pretty cool, kind of creepy but totally cool. Any kind of surgery that can be accomplished without cutting a new hole in someone's body is a miracle. Can't wait to start typing this kind of report.


Open up and saw ahhhh!!!