Surgery, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 28, 2006

Nanotech Restores Vision in Hamsters

Scientists partially restored the vision in blinded hamsters by plugging gaps in their injured brains with a synthetic substance that allowed brain cells to reconnect with one another, a new study reports. If it can be applied to humans, the microscopic material could one day help restore sensory and motor...

Oct 31, 2010

'Presumed Consent' Policies See Fewer Living Kidney Donors

Policies that presume people will donate their organs upon their death unless they specify otherwise — also known as presumed consent — may have the unwanted side effect of lowering the number of kidneys from living donors, a new study suggests. The study examined the rates of kidney transplantation between...

Jun 30, 2011

Mental Disorder Behind Many Nose Job Patients

Many of the people who get nose jobs have a mental illness in which they obsess over a mostly imaginary bodily flaw, a new Belgian study suggests. People with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) can't stop obsessing over their appearance, and they have an exaggerated perception of a flaw that is...

Feb 28, 2011

Weight Loss Surgery May Help Treat Migraines

People who undergo weight loss surgery may experience a beneficial side effect. Besides helping reduce a person's weight, the procedure may also mitigate migraine pain, a new study suggests. Among severely obese participants in the study, the surgery was able to decrease the severity and frequency of migraines. Close to...

Sep 30, 2013

Why is a Common Hip Problem So Frequently Misdiagnosed? (Op-Ed)

Dr. Thomas Ellis is an orthopedic surgeon at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Ellis contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Femoral acetabular impingement. You may not have heard of it, but it's a hip problem many people across the United States are dealing with....

Sep 30, 2014

The Science Behind Renée Zellweger's New Face

Photographs of actress Renée Zellweger at the Elle magazine's Women in Hollywood awards this week, showing her dramatically different appearance, have sparked the Internet's interest. The 45-year-old actress looked almost unrecognizable to fans who know her best from her earlier movies such as Jerry Maguire and Bridget Jones's Diary. But...

Aug 31, 2014

Spinal Stenosis: Symptoms & Treatment

Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal canal, the opening created by the small hole found in each of the vertebrae that make up the human spinal column. As the canal narrows, it puts pressure on the spinal cord or nerve roots, causing pain, numbness or other problems. It...

Oct 7, 2015

Bariatric Surgery May Increase Risk of Self-Harm

People who undergo bariatric surgery to help them lose weight may face an increased risk of self-harming behaviors in the two to three years following the surgery, a new study from Canada reports. In the study, researchers looked at more than 8,800 people who'd had weight-loss surgery, monitoring them for...

Oct 12, 2015

More Kids Are Getting Ear Surgery to Avoid Being Bullied

A 6-year-old boy in Salt Lake City, Utah, recently had plastic surgery to make his ears stick out less, and parents everywhere weighed in on the family's decision, perhaps without knowing all of the facts about this operation. The young boy had been bullied because of his ears — his...

Oct 19, 2015

Facing Organ Donor Shortage, Patients Forced to Get Creative

Dr. Todd Pesavento is medical director of kidney and pancreas transplantation and interim executive director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Pesavento contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Every 10 minutes, another name goes on the list of...

Oct 21, 2015

Poop Goes Mainstream: Fecal Transplants Get Past the 'Ick'

In an era of thousand-dollar pills and DNA-altering technologies, doctors are increasingly turning to a seemingly crude technique to treat chronic intestinal problems: poop transplants. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), as it is properly called — and there's no sugarcoating the description here — is the process of placing the feces...

Nov 5, 2015

Tummy Tucks May Be Riskier Than Other Plastic Surgeries

People who undergo tummy tucks may face a higher rate of major complications than those who have other cosmetic plastic-surgery procedures, according to a new study. Tummy tucks, which doctors call abdominoplasty, involve surgically removing excess skin and tissue from the abdomen to create a smoother and firmer abdominal profile....

Nov 16, 2015

Face Transplants Move Forward with Most Extensive Operation Yet

A 41-year-old man who suffered extensive facial burns in 2001 while working as a volunteer firefighter now has a new face. The man recently underwent the most extensive facial transplant done to date, said the doctors who treated him. Surgeons at New York University Langone Medical Center operated for 26...

Feb 8, 2016

Man's Persistent Hiccups Were Caused by Large Tumor

A man who suffered three bouts of persistent hiccups, lasting a few days each, over the span of one month finally learned the true reason for his health problems — a large tumor in the back of his neck, a new case report reveals. The case was unusual because it's...

Feb 12, 2016

Surgery Leaves Woman with 'Temporary Kleptomania'

A woman in Brazil who had cosmetic surgery ended up with not only a flatter stomach and larger breasts, she also developed kleptomania for a few weeks, a new case report reveals. A few days after being released from the hospital following her cosmetic surgery, the 40-year-old woman began to...