Thanks to the evolution of medicine, there are how many procedures that would have been seen as impossible years ago. However, although you may have heard about many of these new procedures such as heart transplants and kidney transplants, there are others that you may not know. Here are some of the health procedures you never knew existed.
Ear Wax Microsuction
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If you have ever suffered from a blocked ear, then you may well have had them syringed in the past. This used to use a syringe filled with warm water that was squirted into the ear canal to hopefully dislodge the wax and let it fall out.
The procedure improved over time, with a new machine being used in place of the syringe. It still used warm water however, and it still squirted it into the ear canal. This procedure is still used in some doctor surgeries, but there is now a new technique that doesn’t use water.
There are ear wax microsuction Essex clinics and others around the country that use suction in a small tube to remove the wax.
This procedure is considered to be pain-free and also offers better results. It is a quick procedure that can often be completed within someone's lunch hour if necessary.
Rotationplasty
In some cases involving cancer in the knee such as osteosarcoma or Ewing sarcoma, when treatment isn’t working, amputation may be needed to remove the tumour. However, there is a procedure which can help to maintain as much mobility as possible after the operation.
The procedure is called rotationplasty and involves the foot from the amputated leg being removed, rotated 180 degrees and then reattached above where the knee would be. This procedure is often carried out on children with this type of cancer.
With the foot rotated and placed where the knee would be, it allows it to act like a knee for any prosthetics that are used.
Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP)
Restoring someone's sight has got to be one of the best advances in modern medicine. The ability for someone to see again after an accident or trauma is life-changing. Thankfully, for those that have lost sight due to damage to the cornea, there could be a procedure to help.
OOKP was first mentioned in the early 1960s by Professor Benedetto Strampelli of San Camillo Hospital in Italy.
The procedure, also called “tooth in eye” surgery, takes one of the patient's canine or premolars along with the surrounding bone. A hole is then drilled into the tooth and a plastic lens is fitted.
This is then implanted into the patient's cheek where it grows blood vessels over a few months. After this, the tooth is removed from the cheek and planted into the affected eye. This then gives the person the ability to see.
Hemispherectomy
When you talk about the brain, you are talking about one of the most complicated organs in the human body. Because of its complexity, there can be times when the brain doesn’t work in the right way. This can then cause severe symptoms that need a severe treatment.
Some people who suffer from debilitating seizures in one half of the brain can be given a hemispherectomy which involves the removal of part or the whole of one side of the brain.
This procedure is most successful in children as the developing brain can compensate for many of the functions lost. However, there are often side effects such as loss of mobility on one side of the body along with loss of feeling and sensation.
One patient in particular was a 17-year-old girl who was suffering from daily seizures. After a seizure that lasted for nine and a half hours, she elected to have the hemispherectomy. Although there were some side effects, she is now able to live a better life.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the many health procedures that you might not have heard about before. They are all developed to deal with conditions that need treatment. While some of them might seem a little out of the ordinary, they have helped the lives of many people.
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