5 Unique Surgical Procedures - Weird or Wonderful?
Since the first human heart transplant in 1967, there are thousands of surgical procedures evolved, transforming people's lives every day.
Apart from those, we take a look at five of the most bizarre surgical procedures.
1) Ankle to knee Surgery
Rotationplasty is an extraordinary reconstructive surgery, where the ankle is used as a knee joint.
In this procedure, the bottom of the femur, the knee, and the upper tibia are surgically removed, and the lower part of the leg is then rotated 180 degrees and attached to the thigh.
In simple terms, the foot is attached to the knee backward.
After fitting the prosthesis, the ankle of the foot functions as a knee.
2) Tooth-in-eye surgery
Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis is just using the tooth to restore the sight of a patient.
OOKP is used for patients whose blindness is caused by irreversible damage to the cornea and for whom other treatment methods have failed. The patient's tooth is used as the body is unlikely to reject it.
The patient's canine or premolar tooth, and the surrounding bone is removed for the technique. Firstly, a hole is drilled in the tooth, and a plastic lens is inserted in the hole. To grow new blood vessels, the lens-tooth structure is implanted into the patient's cheek for a few months.
Finally, the structure is removed from the cheek and implanted into the eye. Light travels through the lens, thereby restoring the patient's vision.
3) Removing half of the brain
Hemispherectomy is the partial or total removal or disconnection of one of the two hemispheres of the brain. It seems beyond impossible that removing half of the brain can be a feasible, effective surgical solution for certain neurological conditions, but yes, in some cases, it is.
Hemispherectomy is considered a radical procedure, which can take as long as 12 hours to complete. It is usually performed on patients with neurological disorders that lead to seizures on one side of the brain.
Those neurological disorders include severe epilepsy, perinatal stroke, hemimegalencephaly, Sturge-Weber-Dimitri disease, and Rasmussen's encephalitis (inflammation of the cerebral cortex).
Patients who are undergoing hemispherectomy experience paralysis on the side of their body, opposite to their removed hemisphere. As the benefits of the surgery outweigh the risks and side effects, the procedure is opted in certain conditions.
4) Heterotopic heart transplant
The procedure is also known as "piggyback" heart transplantation. The surgical implantation of a healthy donor heart on the right side of the recipient's damaged heart where both the hearts are surgically attached is known as a heterotopic heart transplant.
The surgical connection between both hearts allows blood from the damaged heart to flow into the new heart, then the new heart can pumps blood around the body.
5) Head transplant
The procedure is named as HEAVEN-GEMINI will involve removing the heads of the recipient and a healthy donor using an "ultra-sharp blade," to avoid spinal cord damage.
The recipient's head and the donor body are placed into deep hypothermia for about 45 mins to reduce nerve damage. The recipient's head will then be attached to the donor body using spinal cord fusion.
The entire surgical procedure is expected to take around 36 hours, and it will require the skills of about 150 surgeons and nurses.
Later, the recipient is kept in a coma for 3-4 weeks to minimize movement and ensure the nerve connections between the neck and the spine have time to fuse.