Best medical or surgical advancement in the last 25 years???

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Reply 20

Renal

Polymorphing

Stem-cell research and its subsequent applications.

What applications?

Reply 21

Renal

gm88

MRI and CT scanners because they have helped greatly in enabling doctors to diagnose properly. For example if someone has aneurysm(sp?) they know which areas to avoid when performing surgery and can save surgeons from cutting people open before finding the cause of the problem

Hah!

Reply 22

Wangers

gm88

Recently fmri has been called into serious dounbt...

Reply 23

Alex D

Wangers

Recently fmri has been called into serious dounbt...

How come? That's what they sometimes use to map areas of the brain before surgery isn't it?

Reply 24

Polymorphing

Renal

What applications?

The treatment of leukemia with bone marrow transplants. Cartilage regeneration in the human knee using stem cells. Not forgetting the advancement that made the headlines: the first successful transplant of an organ grown from the master cells - a bronchus.
I do think that the research and application of stem cells are still relatively in their early stages of growth and development, but the application for them which has sprung up now from over 30 years?(im not sure) of research is beyond doubt very interesting.

wow had to edit this twice to make sense... i need sleep

had to edit my edit..

Reply 25

Renal

Polymorphing

Bone marrow tx aren't really stem cell treatment in the way we'd talk about them. Is cartilage being used yet? I understood it was relatively early stage research at the moment. And I'd question whether a single bronchus is really that significant?

Reply 26

rasmusrok1

this is great guys i really think the cartilage tx is fantastic but nothing compared to the bronchus, that really is amazing. I think there also will be huge scope for application of xenotransplatation when it is refined and used for a few more organs, what dya think?

Reply 27

Kyalimers

Key Hole Surgery and its further advances such as trying Pin Hole Surgery now.

Reply 28

Wangers

Alex D

How come? That's what they sometimes use to map areas of the brain before surgery isn't it?

Some people did uber cool things with monkeys where I think they somehow conditioned them into expecting to see pictures, then put them in mobile fmri machines and did blind tests varying whether they were actually stimulated. Turns out that without stimulation, there is still expectation blood flow that is hard to differentiate between stimulated blood flow. They're proposing dialatation of capilliaries when it is reasonably anticipated that some areas will be used. Obviously, thats not great if pts are under stress/drugged up on various things. Thats my understanding of it anyway - it was on the nature podcast avilable from their website.

Reply 29

ThisLittlePiggy

Scrubs,House and Grey's anatomy.

Reply 30

rasmusrok1

thanks wangers im gona look into that...interesting

Reply 31

Alex D

Renal

What applications?

That Glasgow stroke study with the stem cells sounds promising.

Reply 32

annread

*Stargirl*

laparascopic surgery to reduce infection, recovery time, and make surgery much safer and quicker, reduces waiting lists

exactly what i would say....... i was infact asked this question at my Brums interview :rolleyes:

Reply 33

*Stargirl*

yeah im on a surgical ward and i take it for granted that elderly people will be up and mobile within a few days of surgery..but if laparascopic surgery wasnt around they'd never make the surgery or they'd only be mobile months and months afterwards!

Reply 34

Renal

*Stargirl*

they'd only be mobile months and months afterwards!

Reply 35

*Stargirl*

yeah i know i was exaggerating...i actually have no idea how long it would take, or how much higher the mortality rate and infection rate would be

Reply 36

modini

Helenia

While you could say this, because it's massively increased our understanding of some conditions, its actual therapeutic applications are still few and far between.

I'm still not really sure what my answer would be, to be honest. Lots of things which are touted as the answer are actually (like gene therapy) still quite far from being practically useful.

Thinking about it, I'd probably be inclined to go for something much smaller technically but with a bigger impact - like discovering aspirin is not just good for headaches...

Yeah, it's still in its early stages, but I think it has a lot of potential because it's not specific to treating just one type of illness (or so i've read).

Reply 37

Helenia

*Stargirl*

yeah i know i was exaggerating...i actually have no idea how long it would take, or how much higher the mortality rate and infection rate would be

It'd be complicated to work out, as there are other factors involved, such as improved DVT prophylaxis, better physio for mobilisation, better instruments/techniques for open surgery too, increased use of antibiotic cover, improved hygiene...

As for the ops being quicker - it's sort of true but not always. Some in fact take longer to do laparoscopically, especially if the surgeon is not experienced with the kit, but the benefits outweigh the extra theatre time.