Medical Revolution

Have approximately 2,500 years passing since it was founded the first School of Medicine West. Many were doctors and researchers who have gone from anesthesia to the vaccine through the endoscope and antibiotics. Have been numerous inventions and discoveries that have occurred in the last century and a half and have enabled the foundations of the current medical science.

These developments have gone unnoticed for many due to the accelerated pace so that has given the technology. Only about one hundred and fifty years seemed almost a dream to perform surgery without the patient suffers. Today these are less traumatic and postoperative periods have been reduced significantly thanks to the presence of technology in medical practice.

Have been applied more and more technologies to achieve optimum conditions for any surgical intervention. Finally, there was progress not only used to cure but also to prevent disease, and subsequently for all types of medical research, thanks to technology which has made important discoveries. Experts have been concerned with the incorporation of technological advances in medical practice, which provides a radical change in medical science in the future.

The first full facial transplantation

The news of the day, without a doubt. The first full facial transplantation in the United States has been successfully completed, consolidating at the same time as the operation of more complex plastic surgery done to date. Deeper in the case.

Connie Culp's life underwent a dramatic turn in 2004 after receiving a shot in the face by her husband, which left her completely disfigured and made him lose half his face, condemning it to perform the essential functions and any normal person (such as breathing or eating), depending on your throat in an intubation.

Fortunately, Culp had the will to life of a deceased donor (whose identity was preserved in the media), who used the medicine to your face for implantation Culp, who set the story in today to have publicly presented their new face.

The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio was the scene where they conducted this complex operation that involved the transplantation of 80% of their facial structure, reemplazadno tissues, bones, muscles and arteries in a procedure that required no less than 22 hours and in which eleven surgeons.

Today, Culp, 46, is the face that we see in the pictures of post. Has regained its nose and almost made a normal and can eat and breathe normally. "Here I am, five years later ... I got a nose," Culp said with humor to the media.

The case is deeply emotional, so emotional and happy. This achievement of medicine has two precedents in France and one in China, but without a doubt that this is the most significant of all. It is hoped that the technique was refined in the future and can provide patients with guarantees of success it has demonstrated in the case of fault.

Intervertebral disc transplantation for back pain

Chinese surgeons first transplanted discs, to relieve chronic back pain. The intervertebral disc is a formation of connective tissue, which lies between the vertebrae to give them greater mobility and a better union between one and another.

When the disc becomes worn or breaks, compresses the medulla giving really unbearable pain. Five years ago were transplanted from human donors, five patients with chronic back pain. Detected improvement in symptoms, no immune rejection and only mild degeneration occurred This procedure is an alternative and very efficient in these cases that the drug treatment did not result, the surgical option was never so effectively.

The previous procedures such as fusion of the vertebrae (fusion surgery) or the implantation of artificial intervertebral discs, had no effect so promising as this revolutionary disc transplant, although still in the experimental stage.

Although not many patients in whom this technique has been tested, it is believed that with more testing time could be improved and considered as a valid alternative for treating chronic back pain.

Advances to prevent transplant rejection

In search of a better quality of life for transplant, the University of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, developed a new technique that could end with cocktails of drugs that are supplied to prevent rejection in transplants.

The technique is based on the isolation and chemical modification of a cell type of white blood cell donor. Once the changes made in the laboratory, these cells can destroy those generating the patient's refusal. Besides activating the action of another type of cell that helps in the process of accepting a foreign organ or tissue. In the end, these cells were cultivated together with the receiver and then injected into the patient.

Anyway Dr. James Hutchinson, who led the stated recently that the technique is at a preliminary stage. Currently results in 17 patients are encouraging, but the technique must be polished. Even one of the patients was 8 months without any medicine.

The vice president of the British Transplantation Society, Keith Rigg, stated that this is an interesting work that has the potential to reduce the risk of rejection as the dose of immunosuppressive drugs.

We will be vigilant in this new practice and hopefully have more news soon.

A robot that cleans our arteries millimeter

Again, the technology has been combined with science to achieve advances in medicine that can prevent disease. In this case, a robot that are smaller than a millimeter and is prepared to go through the arteries of our body and wipe or uncovered, reducing the risk of a possible heart attack.

To reduce the risk of this tragedy, the robot can release drugs to dissolve clots and blockages in arteries, which are possible causative agents of heart attacks.

The robot consists of a small rectangle with six legs. The three front legs are smaller than three hind legs, which are responsible for encouraging the robot to be moved.

Using heart muscle cells, scientists compose this marvel of nanotechnology. Because of this, the cells shrink, allowing the movement of contraction necessary to bring the robot moves. But it has advantages not only in the movement, as of this material, the robot does not need external energy supplement can absorb the energy in the form of sugar placed in the patient's blood.

The medicine is witnessing progress in determining where to work with technology. If it were not for this kind of simultaneous collisions, this science would not have achieved some of the progress of the currently enjoys.

Artificial heart transplant

Heart transplants are one of the most dangerous operations that may confront our bodies. Not only for the obvious risk inherent in the operation itself, but for the complications that can generate a body external to enter our body, because it could not refuse to be original. The bodies of the printer that we talked a few days ago is a remarkable breakthrough in this aspect, but what they speak on this occasion is not left behind.

Attempts to create artificial heart back to the'60s, and managed to materialize in 2001 when it created the AbioCor, an artificial heart that despite its impressive performance is the limitations it can be implemented only by their size to 50% of the male, and that lasts one to two years.

However, scientists in France Alain F. Carpentier and a number of specialists who worked with him managed to create a new artificial heart that exceeds the effectiveness of the AbioCor.

This is a prototype that has been designed with biosynthetic animal tissues chemically treated to prevent rejection of the body that receives the heart, and uses electronic sensors to pump blood to our body.

The artificial heart is the market launch in 2011, and in principle was tested in 20 volunteer patients in the next two years and a half. Due to materials and technology involved in it, it is expected that the cost of this product is U.S. $ 200,000.

In conclusion

Clearly, medicine has undergone a great improvement over the last century thanks to the implementation and modernization of technology, either heavy machinery, such as an artificial respirator, or refined, such as chips and endoscopy. This upgrade has enabled today can do all types of surgical procedures with less invasiveness and discomfort of the patient, as well as facilitated, reducing the risks.

There is no doubt that the quality of life has progressed far because of medical technology, not only from a physical point of view (the level of mortality, and infant mortality has declined markedly), but also the thinking of being human, as many discoveries have given explanations to existential doubts and enigmas such as: where are the differences between humans and the similarities between family members? He has given so many fatal diseases has brought hope to millions of people around the world with urgent needs, such as the transplantation of an organ.

Fifty years ago people who did not have any weapons against diseases such as breast cancer, can now fight it openly and have a substantial likelihood of success. Possibly in a not so distant future, the technology enables the discovery of new treatments for diseases that are currently incompatible. Cloning, no legal system in humans is still the majority population against, not only for his powerful polemic, but also by the great economic importance attached to it. Euthanasia is legal. Is it moral? It remains an open question. Clearly, thanks to technology has been kept alive for thousands who might have died long ago.

The question is: if someone has the power to make a living person, contrary to natural laws, can be considered to have the power to decide who dies? The tech said yes. ... The people in question.