Surgery

It isn't a common procedure, but it is real medicine, and for those who really need it Fecal Bacteriotherapy (FB) is a godsend.  Known by a variety of names including fecal transplant, stool transplantation and Autologous Restoration of Gastrointestinal Flora (ARGF), this procedure is uncommon but becoming more widely used.

All About Fecal Transplants

It is what it sounds like.  Feces (stool, poop) samples are taken from a donor who is screened to make sure they are healthy.  Then that stool sample is processed and eventually placed in the intestine of the person who needs the transplant.  It is more complicated than that, but essentially, that's the scoop.

It is important to remember that the people who need this therapy are often very sick from their disease process, and welcome relief, even if it comes from this unorthodox procedure.

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Former Dentist Michael Clair has pleaded guilty to a wide variety of charges, including fraud, after substituting paper clips for stainless steel posts in at least two different dental surgeries.

For patients who have a serious fear of the dentist, this story will not help the condition. For tips on managing your fear of the dentist, stop reading this article now and check out this one:

How to Manage Your Fear of the Dentist.

Clair had been banned from providing services to Medicaid patients, yet still managed to collect $130,000 in fraudulent reimbursement. He would have other dentists in the dental practice provide billing services for work he did, in order to service Medicaid patients.  In addition, he would write prescriptions for narcotics for staff members, who would fill the prescriptions and give him the pills.

Reportedly, even after anonymous reports led the government to his dental practice, it took an additional four years for the dentist to be indicted on multiple counts.  His dental license was suspended in 2006, and he is currently unable to work as a dentist in this country. Clair is facing 15 years in prison.

What I find extra horrifying about this case is that paper clips are apparently an acceptable substitute for stainless posts on a temporary basis, but not on a permanent one.  Am I wrong here for thinking that's a little strange?

Why are you afraid of the dentist?

It sounds kind of odd, doesn't it? Of course you know how to cough, you've been doing it your entire life.

When you were small you were taught to  cover your mouth when you coughed, and that was that, you were an expert cougher.  After surgery, everything you know about coughing (cover your mouth) will change because your hands will be busy elsewhere.  Using a technique commonly referred to as "bracing" you can prevent injury and minimize the pain of coughing.  Using another technique, "cough and deep breathe," you can help prevent pneumonia.

How To Cough After Surgery

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Surgeons in Ankara, Turkey performed that country's first face transplant today on a 19-year-old who was burned as an infant.  Surgeons are also performing the worlds first triple limb transplant, transplanting the same donor's arms and a leg to another man.  There are no indications if organs were also able to be transplanted.

About Organ Transplant

The face of 45-year-old donor Ahmet Kaya will be transplanted to Ugur Acar today.  Nearly Acar's entire face was burned by a burning blanket when he was only 40 days old.

About Organ Donation

Atilla Kadvir, the 34-year old limb transplant recipient, has had the transplanted leg removed.  Hours after surgery it was deemed no longer viable. At this time both arms are still viable.  Kadvir was 11 when he lost his limbs during an accident.  He was running with a metal stick while trying to chase away pigeons when he was electrocuted.

Dr. Omer Ozkan, who led the teams, previously performed a double arm transplant and a womb transplant.

Dante Autullo is a lucky man.  Anyone who can go to the emergency room (and be shown an xray of their own head with a nail embedded) and understand what is happening is lucky, in my book.

Autullo thought the nail, which was fired by a nail gun, had grazed his scalp because he was bleeding and felt "like I got punched on the side of the head." In reality, the nail was imbedded in his skull and was within millimeters of rendering him permanently disabled.

Neurosurgeon Leslie Schaffer removed the nail by placing two small holes in the skull on each side of the nail, then removing the piece of skull bone alone with the nail.

Bath salts, the newest cheap designer drug that is killing people nationwide, is also leading to necrotizing fasciitis, better known as flesh eating bacteria.

Surgeons recently released a study that disclosed that they had treated a 34-year-old woman who had injected bath salts.  Several days later, she had redness, pain and signs of infection at the injection site, and eventually admitted to hospital staff that she had injected bath salts.  The pain at the injection site quickly moved from reddened to a case of necrotizing fasciitis, or flesh eating bacteria.

Flesh eating bacteria is treated with massive doses of antibiotics and surgical removal of the affected tissue.  Surgeons attempt to remove the infect tissue as well as a "margin" of healthy tissue, attempting to get ahead of the fast-moving infection.  In the case of this patient, in order to save her life her arm, shoulder, collar bone and breast had to be removed.

Sarah Burke, Canadian freestyle skier extraordinaire, has died of injuries suffered during a training run in Park City, Utah.

Burke was only 29, but she was a world class skier and was expected to be on the Winter Olympics 2014 Team for  half pipe skiing.  Instead of going to Russia as an Olympian, the accident--which appeared very minor, initially--sent Burke to a Salt Lake City ICU, where she eventually died.

Sarah Burke had reportedly told friends and family about her desire to be an organ donor, and her family honored her wish to help save lives. One donor can help as many as nine people who are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, by donating their heart, lungs, liver (which can be split to save two people), kidneys, pancreas and small intestine.

Bruce Jenner, once known as the gold medalist for the Decathalon in the 1976 Olympic games, is now more famous for his role as stepfather to the Kardashians and his multiple plastic surgeries.

This time, Bruce's facial scar --which can be seen here--is the result of something far more serious than a badly done face lift or a nose job.  According to several sources, Jenner actually had an area of skin cancer removed from his face.

Bruce has spoken about his surgery experience on the family television show Keeping Up With The Kardashians, but has been quiet about this most recent procedure.

Yes, it's true, a donated heart was dropped before it was transplanted into a patient in Mexico.

See video of the heart dropping incident

As a transplant professional I feel the need to weigh in on this.  Yes, it is horrifying to watch something as precious as a donated human organ tumble to the ground. No, it shouldn't have happened. However, it is something we work very hard to prevent, and when it can't be prevented, we work hard to make sure the organ isn't harmed by packaging every single organ as though it might be dropped, or in a car accident, or some other mishap might occur.

Organs are always packaged with no less than three sterile barriers, so that if anything happens, such as a container coming open, the organ remains sterile. It is also important to note that organs are frequently transported anywhere from a few miles to over a thousand miles, so they have a risk of being in a car accident just like the average driver does.

Those simple facts mean that once in a great while the unthinkable does happen and organs have minor accidents. The good news is that an organ is far better packaged than your average driver! A typical abdominal organ has three sterile barriers and one of those may be a hard container. These are then placed inside a biohazard plastic bag along with ice, then those are inside a styrofoam insert which is placed inside another biohazard plastic bag inside a box with a 50 pound burst strength.  All to protect the precious cargo inside against any kind of unexpected accident.

For thoracic organs, a cooler may be used instead of the box lined with biohazard bags, but the packaging is essentially the same.

This packaging is made mandatory by UNOS, the United Network For Organ Sharing.  End result? The box, and the organ inside, can tolerate far more stress than you might expect.  Keep in mind that organs have no blood in them when they are being transported, so they don't bruise, and any harm that might come to them is limited.

The recipient is reportedly doing well following heart transplant surgery.

It's a horrifying thing to contemplate: your newborn baby has a hernia-type condition, called an omphalocele, that is so bad that his internal organs are lying just underneath the skin of his abdomen.

See Baby Hayes Before Surgery

For the parents of Hayes Davis, and other newborns with the rare condition, fixing the condition is often a waiting game.  Kelly Davis found out that Hayes had the condition during an ultrasound when she was only 12 weeks pregnant, which meant waiting another 28 weeks to give birth before surgery could be performed.

Instead of performing the repair procedure immediately after his birth, Hayes' surgeons opted to wait several months, which allowed them to repair the defect with one surgery rather than multiple procedures over time.

The surgery was successful.

Hayes' mom talks about his condition and surgery