Surgery, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 2, 2017

More Than Two-Thirds of Patients Have Leftover Opioids After Surgery

Most patients who are prescribed opioids after surgery don't take all of the prescribed pills, leaving leftover opioids that could be used inappropriately, a new review of studies finds. Between 67 percent and 92 percent of the patients included in the review reported that, after a surgical procedure, they had...

Aug 11, 2017

Pig-to-Human Transplants: CRISPR Gene Editing May Make This Possible

We are one step closer to having pig organ transplants, a new study shows. Using the genetic cut-and-paste tool CRISPR, scientists have removed DNA-based viruses that usually infect pig organs, raising the chances that these animal organs could be safely transplanted into human patients one day, a process known as...

Aug 30, 2017

Plastic Surgery Ads on Instagram? They May Not Be from Qualified Docs

If you're considering plastic surgery options — whether it's a nip here or a tuck there — you may need to exercise caution when it comes to services that are advertised on social media, according to a new study that examined plastic surgery-related posts on Instagram. Scientists calculated the number...

Oct 30, 2017

Man Sees Doctor for Stomachache, Has Leaking Lighter Removed from Gut

One Florida man's stomach pain turned out to have an unusual cause: A lighter that the man had swallowed was leaking lighter fluid into his gut, according to a recent report of the man's case. The 49-year-old went to the emergency room in October 2016 complaining of stomach pain, nausea...

Oct 30, 2017

Perpetually Congested Woman Had a Tooth Growing into Her Nose

See more Have you ever had one of those colds where no matter how hard you blow your nose, you still feel congested? That was daily life for a 57-year-old woman in China who had nosebleeds, congestion and inflammation for decades, according to news reports. But the cause of her...

Nov 20, 2017

No, Cotton Swabs Aren't the Most Common Cause of Eardrum Rupture

Every day, countless people perform a task so dangerous that many doctors urge them to reconsider: They clean out the wax out of their ears with a cotton swab. This simple act is responsible for 40 percent of cases of ruptured eardrums, a new study from Israel finds. But cotton...

Nov 20, 2017

Why Human Head Transplants Will Never Work

An Italian neurosurgeon is claiming that his team has performed the world's first successful human head transplant, using two human cadavers in China, according to news reports. The procedure, which took 18 hours to complete, has led the controversial surgeon — Dr. Sergio Canavero, of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group...

Nov 27, 2017

Man Has Surgery to Remove 263 Coins, 100 Nails from Stomach

Doctors in India were shocked to find that a patient with stomach pain had swallowed hundreds of coins and nails, according to news reports. The 35-year-old patient was recently admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain, and doctors initially thought he had food poisoning, according to the Independent. But an...

Dec 5, 2017

John Mayer's Emergency Surgery: How Common Is Appendicitis?

Singer-songwriter John Mayer went to the hospital this morning (Dec. 5) for an emergency appendectomy, or surgery to remove his appendix. Dead & Company, the band Mayer is currently touring with, announced the musician's surgery on Twitter. Early this morning, Tuesday, December 5th, John Mayer was admitted into the hospital...

Dec 14, 2017

Surgeon Signs Initials into Patients' Livers: What Is an 'Argon Beam'?

A British surgeon has pleaded guilty to charges that he marked his initials into patients' organs using a medical instrument called an argon beam coagulator, according to news reports. But what exactly is this instrument, and are its effects permanent? The surgeon, Simon Bramhall, admitted to the charge of assault...

Jan 17, 2018

Surgeon Left Scalpel in Veteran's Abdomen, Lawsuit Claims

A veteran in Connecticut is suing a Veterans Affairs hospital, claiming that someone left a scalpel handle inside his abdomen after surgery, according to news reports. Army veteran Glenford Turner had surgery in 2013 to remove all or part of his prostate gland, according to NPR. The lawsuit alleges that...

Feb 14, 2018

Why 'Girls' Actor Lena Dunham Needed a Hysterectomy at 31

Actress Lena Dunham has revealed that she recently underwent a hysterectomy to treat crippling pain from endometriosis. In an essay published in Vogue this week, Dunham (age 31) detailed her decision to have the uterus-removing surgery after a decade-long battle with endometriosis, a condition in which the tissue that lines...

Feb 21, 2018

Here's What Happens When You Leave Surgical Sponges in a Person's Body for Years

Sometimes, a bloated stomach is just gas or the result of something you ate. But for one woman in Japan, her abdominal bloating turned out to be caused by two surgical sponges that were left in her body years earlier, according to a new report of the case. The 42-year-old...

Feb 21, 2018

Does Anesthesia Cause Memory Problems in Adults?

Going under for surgery might lead to future memory problems, but any effects appear to be small, a new study suggests. Middle-age adults who underwent surgery using general anesthesia performed slightly worse on memory tests afterward, according to the study, published today (Feb. 22) in the journal Anaesthesia. The people...

Apr 16, 2018

Organ Donations from Overdose Victims Save Thousands

It's difficult to describe the opioid epidemic as having anything resembling a silver lining, but as deaths from opioid use have skyrocketed, one arguably positive outcome has been more organ donations from overdose victims, a new study suggests. Since 2000, the number of overdose deaths in the U.S. has climbed...