surgery – News Stories About surgery - Page 14

Doctors Try Surgery Without Breaking Skin

Jan 8, 2008 6:19 PM CST

Doctors Try Surgery Without Breaking Skin

Critics fear scarless method is 'moving too quickly'

(Newser) - Doctors are trying a new surgical method that uses natural orifices to enter the body, leaves no scars, and lessens the chance of infection, the Boston Globe reports. It's called NOTES—natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery—and is being tested mostly on animals so far. Experts are already worried about...

New Tech Tracks Things Left Behind

Jan 2, 2008 2:12 PM CST

New Tech Tracks Things Left Behind

Chips, bar codes keep surgeons from leaving sponges in patients

(Newser) - Hospitals are turning to technology to cut down on incidents of doctors sewing up surgical patients with sponges and other items left inside, the Chicago Tribune reports. A bar-coding system to ensure what goes in comes back out is one solution; another involves tagging items with chips that allow them...

Girl Born With
8 Limbs Gets
to Go Home

Dec 15, 2007 3:35 PM CST

Girl Born With 8 Limbs Gets to Go Home

Doctors say little Lakshmi in India is doing well

(Newser) - The 2-year-old girl whose extra limbs were removed in a marathon surgery left a Bangalore hospital today for home. Doctors say Lakshmi Tata, born with four arms and four legs from a conjoined twin, will recover, but they cautioned she will need more surgery, BBC reports. "Lakshmi is normal,...

Virtual Surgery Coming Soon?

Dec 8, 2007 6:39 AM CST

Virtual Surgery Coming Soon?

3D models of patients' bodies would let surgeons practice first

(Newser) - Within five years, surgeons may be able to create 3D virtual models of patients' bodies in order to practice surgeries ahead of time. While current virtual surgery lags far behind the realism of, say, combat video games, a UCLA assistant math professor believes this could change soon, reports Scientific American....

Hospital Fined for Year's Third Botched Brain Surgery

Nov 27, 2007 5:57 AM CST

Hospital Fined for Year's Third Botched Brain Surgery

Rhode Island state officials order new safety procedures

(Newser) - State health officials fined Rhode Island Hospital yesterday and ordered it to change procedures after a surgeon began operating on the wrong side of a woman's head, the Providence Journal reports. A patient died after a similar incident four months ago. Yesterday's incident is the third botched neurosurgical procedure this...

Lakshmi Makes First Post-Op Appearance

Nov 13, 2007 2:58 PM CST

Lakshmi Makes First Post-Op Appearance

'So far, so good,' says doc who removed Indian girl's extra limbs

(Newser) - Nearly a week after the marathon surgery to remove her two extra arms and legs, 2-year-old Lakshmi Tatma made her first public appearance today, the AP reports. The girl appeared healthy and alert before the Indian media, although her legs are in casts and doctors say she will need additional...

Girl Born With
8 Limbs Awake and Smiling

Nov 9, 2007 4:16 PM CST

Girl Born With 8 Limbs Awake and Smiling

Indian toddler regains consciousness, wiggles toes

(Newser) - Two days after surgery to remove her extra arms, legs, and organs, 2-year old Lakshmi regained consciousness in a Bangalore hospital today and gave the first tentative signs that she's on her way to recovery. She even smiled at her parents and wiggled her toes, the AP reports. Doctors took...

8-Limbed
Girl's Surgery
a Success

Nov 7, 2007 6:37 AM CST

8-Limbed Girl's Surgery a Success

Toddler revered as Hindu goddess stable after 27-hour operation

(Newser) - Doctors successfully completed an extremely complicated 27-hour surgery on an eight-limbed Indian toddler whose village reveres her as a goddess. Lakshmi Tatma, 2, was born entangled with an incompletely developed headless twin sister. "Beyond our expectations, the reconstruction worked wonderfully well," said one of the surgeons. Doctors removed...

Indian Docs Try to Help Girl With 8 Limbs

Nov 6, 2007 10:40 AM CST

Indian Docs Try to Help Girl With 8 Limbs

Surgery begins on 2-year-old with rare medical condition

(Newser) - Doctors in India have begun marathon surgery on a 2-year-old girl who was born with four arms and four legs, the BBC reports. Lakshmi Tatma's extra limbs are from an incompletely developed conjoined twin; her condition has drawn worldwide attention. More than 30 surgeons will work in shifts on what...

Acupuncture Reduces Post-Op Pain: Studies

Oct 17, 2007 10:38 AM CDT

Acupuncture Reduces Post-Op Pain: Studies

Patients needed less medication, had fewer side effects

(Newser) - Acupuncture before or during surgery can reduce post-operative pain, researchers have found. Patients who received the nontraditional treatment reported less pain after various surgeries, needed less pain medication and suffered fewer side effects from the medication they took, according to 15 clinical studies reviewed by the team. "The use...

Knee Will Cost Oden Season

Sep 13, 2007 3:54 PM CDT

Knee Will Cost Oden Season

Trail Blazers rookie out 6-12 months after microfracture surgery

(Newser) - The top pick in the NBA draft will likely spend the 2007-08 season on the bench after exploratory surgery on Greg Oden's right knee revealed cartilage damage, ESPN.com reports. The Portland Trail Blazers' 7-footer will spend eight weeks off after surgeons fixed the problem today with microfracture surgery, but...

Chinese Woman 'Needled' for Being Female

Sep 9, 2007 6:41 AM CDT

Chinese Woman 'Needled' for Being Female

26 needles embedded by grandparents who wanted a grandson

(Newser) - Chinese doctors have found an astonishing 26 sewing needles embedded in the body of a woman which they believe were inserted when she was a baby by grandparents who wanted a grandson. Some of the needles have pierced vital organs, and a broken one lies in the woman's brain. The...

Two Docs' Heads Are Better Than 1

Sep 7, 2007 1:56 PM CDT

Two Docs' Heads Are Better Than 1

Always seek out a second opinion after these tricky diagnoses

(Newser) - When diagnosis is difficult, the procedure is risky, or less-invasive alternatives are available, a second opinion is essential. CNN lists five diagnoses that should send up red flags:

Heart-bypass surgery: Alternatives may be better for some patients.
Hysterectomy: The uterus isn't always the problem, and when it is, less dramatic

...

Cancer Can Wait; Botox Doesn't

Aug 29, 2007 3:00 PM CDT

Cancer Can Wait; Botox Doesn't

New study says medical patients wait longer than cosmetic patients

(Newser) - Patients have a better chance of seeing their dermatologists if they want Botox than if they want a potentially cancerous mole examined, a new study finds. Researchers, posing as patients in a dozen cities, faced a typical wait of eight days for cosmetic procedures and 26 days to test a...

Weight-Loss Surgery Can
End Diabetes

Aug 22, 2007 10:52 AM CDT

Weight-Loss Surgery Can End Diabetes

Intestinal rerouting works miracles, but science still debated

(Newser) - Surgery that shrinks stomachs and reroutes intestines can make diabetes disappear—but some worry the procedure is the wrong one for the disease. More than three of four diabetics who undergo bariatric surgery are left with no symptoms, and can even live without insulin. But docs are concerned about complications...

Site Sells Shares in Boob Jobs

Aug 17, 2007 2:51 PM CDT

Site Sells Shares in Boob Jobs

"Benefactors" pay to view naked photos and chat with women wanting implants

(Newser) - Web entrepreneur Jason Grunstra says his site is just a service connecting people with similar interests. The interest happens to be breasts, and the site connects those who like to look at them with those who'd like to have theirs enlarged. Women upload pictures of themselves, hoping to attract “...

Simple Technique Could Bypass Cardiac Arrest

Aug 17, 2007 1:55 AM CDT

Simple Technique Could Bypass Cardiac Arrest

Restricting arm blood circulation helps heart in surgery—and attacks, docs hope

(Newser) - A simple technique temporarily restricting the arm's blood supply before heart bypass surgery significantly improves the chances of a full recovery—and could one day be used to prevent cardiac arrest, reports the Guardian. The technique uses cycles of arm compressions with cuffs to remotely restrict blood flow to the...

Breast Implants Linked to Triple Suicide Rate

Aug 8, 2007 6:55 AM CDT

Breast Implants Linked to Triple Suicide Rate

Troubled women may be drawn to popular surgery

(Newser) - Women with breast-enlarging implants have a suicide rate three times higher than average, a new medical study has found. Deaths linked to mental problems, such as alcohol abuse, were also three times higher among women undergoing the increasingly popular cosmetic procedure, the Los Angeles Times reports. Suicides rose sharply...

Woman Has Pencil Removed From Brain After 55 Years

Aug 7, 2007 5:52 PM CDT

Woman Has Pencil Removed From Brain After 55 Years

Carry your pencils eraser-side up!

(Newser) - A German woman had a pencil removed from her brain after living with it for 55 years. Margret Wegner fell down while holding a pencil when she was four years old, jamming it into her brain and leading to a lifetime of headaches and nosebleeds. Surgeons finally removed most of...

Docs Replace Cheney's
Heart Implant

Jul 29, 2007 8:15 AM CDT

Docs Replace Cheney's Heart Implant

Veep gets go-ahead to return to work after defibrillator gets new battery

(Newser) - Doctors have replaced Dick Cheney's defibrillator "without complication," a spokeswoman for the VP says. A checkup last month revealed that the battery in the 6-year-old cardiac implant was running low, and yesterday doctors performed a routine procedure to swap out the power source without affecting the wires that...