Two More Amazing Upgrades To Surgical Technique

Surgical innovations lead the list of modern miracles, including the new techniques that make even brain surgery a relatively low-risk undertaking with a short hospital stay.

4. Minimally invasive brain surgery.

Robert had an aneurysm, a blow-out in an artery, in the middle of his brain. For most of the 80 years that brain surgery has been possible, it would have been necessary for the surgeon to saw off part of his skull and then spend hours in delicate surgery to reach the aneursym and patch it. Robert's surgeons, however, were able to send a tiny pipette into his brain to rebuild the injured artery with tiny platinum coils so it would not bleed and destroy surrounding tissue. Robert was awake during the surgery and discharged from the hospital just three days later.

Now some forms of brain surgery can be performed without opening the skull at all. Opening a tiny hole in the skull through the nose, or sending a catheter (a tiny pipe) through the femoral artery in the groin up to the brain, doctors can remove tumors and repair arteries, sometimes with the patient going home just 48 hours after the procedure. The face and the bones of the skull do not have to be broken, sawed, or moved.

One of the most interesting innovations in surgery, however, is in one of the most common forms of cosmetic surgery.

5. Adjustable breast implants.

Breast implants are a boon for busts. Silicone implants can help women emulate anything from a sleek and chic Gwyneth Paltrow look to a full-busted Dolly Parton look, but until recently, women had to choose their look before they had their surgery. Now it is possible, at least for the first six months after surgery, for women to change the size of their implants to fine-tune their look.

Most women have swelling for two to three months after surgery, and don't really know their final breast size until the inflammation heals. And since different bra manufacturers have different actual sizes of their C and D cups, some women don't have an accurate idea of how the size they choose will really look until the surgery has been done.

Breast augmentation surgery used to be irreversible. The new breast implants can be adjusted by the surgeon's injecting saline into the implant or drawing it out through a portal hidden under the skin of the breast. In 2012, surgeons made advances in the use of Spectra (TM) implants for asymmetrical breasts needing Differing volumes of fluid to come out the same size.

Drug breakthroughs available and in wide-spread use in 2012

And what new drug breakthroughs are available and in wide-spread use in 2012? Here are five of the most widely useful:

• A drug to prevent HIV infection in healthy people. The new combination drug Truvada keeps people who don't already have HIV from getting infected.

• A treatment for head lice that works quickly. For many years, pet owners have been able to treat their dogs with a medication called Ivermectin to prevent heart worm infections. Now this useful drug is available for people to kill head lice in the newly approved prescription drug Sklice, manufactured and marketed by pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur.

• Replacements for Coumadin. This blood thinning medication literally does double duty as rat poison. However, new anti-Platelet Activating Factor drugs such as ticagrelor (Brilinta) stop clots without causing bleeding, and don't require constant testing to keep bloodstream levels of the medication right.

• Additional drugs for high blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure, chances are that some of your organs, especially your heart, don't get enough oxygen. A relatively new medication called ranolazine (Ranexa) helps cells throughout the body burn sugar rather than fats for energy, reducing their demand for oxygen.

• And nearly two dozen new drugs were approved for cancer treatment in the USA, the largest number of them for the most common form of cancer, a kind of skin cancer known as basal cell carcinoma.

While it is common to complain about the iatrogenic side effects of modern medicine, the simple fact is, if you have to get sick, there has been no time in human history when medicine was more able to help you than right now. While fantastic medical innovations may be in the offing, practical and proven medical innovations that save lives and that improve lives are available in the present.