Note to self: should the need unfortunately arise, tell the surgeon that I don't want him to do my colostomy this way.

Either way, I suspect that you'll still pay through the nose.

I think I'm gonna be sick...

Your link to Quark Soup had a vasectomy. You may want to consult a URLologist.

You'll pay through the nose, unless you pay a pittance you can easily afford for socialized medicine, in which case you get all the surgery you need, and your neighbor who can't afford it does, too.

Not so different from what I do. I just work higher up.

Not so different from what I do. I just work higher up.

Hey, Jane! I know you don't do these, but...scar-free b00b reduction. Think about it! ;-)

Old news, Rand. See Johnson GW, Christ JE. (1993). "The endoscopic breast augmentation: the transumbilical insertion of saline-filled breast implants.". Plast Reconstr Surg. 92 (5): 801-8. PMID 8415961. Here's the abstract. It's reasonably common these days.

See Johnson GW, Christ JE.

Sure, big deal. But does he do it through the mouth?

Huh? Huh?

Thought so.

Wouldn't going in through the natural orifice at the "other end" be a shorter distance to the objective?

"You'll pay through the nose, unless you pay a pittance you can easily afford for socialized medicine, in which case you get all the surgery you need, and your neighbor who can't afford it does, too.

Posted by Steve at April 30, 2007 09:43 AM"

Some moron did not get the memo about reading the linked material before posting. Makes me want socialized medicine even less now.

"Some moron did not get the memo about reading the linked material before posting."

Certainly I read the linked article. What of it? My comment didn't contradict the article, nor does it display any ignorance of the article.

If I didn't target my comment to the substance of the article, it's because the benefits of this medical development are uncontroversial. There's nothing to say about it, except innuendo about getting feces in your mouth.

Steve,

Rand was making a pun and you went off on some tangential rant supporting socialized medicine based on a misinterpretation of that pun at beast or a case of the ass at worst. Please take a chill pill and try to keep on topic.

Well, the tissues in the breast are outside the thorax, so entering from there would just oblige the surgeon to make an unnecessary incision. The reasoning, surgically speaking, is pretty sound. Why make a hole in the body when nature supplies you with a couple of them already?

As to entering at the other end, well, if you're excising something in the thorax, it's a lot shorter trip from the top end.

Ummm....well, yes, Jane.

I know that. Despite the fact that I'm not an MD, I'm not completely unfamiliar with human (or for that matter, mammalian) anatomy. It was, you know, like...a joke?

Just think how much of a delight this experience would be at dinner parties. "You know, this tastes just like my spleen. Delicious!".

I see -- like a joke.

"Had this been an actual joke, you would have received instructions telling you where and how to laugh. This has been a test of the emergency humor system.

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming."

More seriously, I apprehended your humor; I just took the straight line, is all. We're cool.

I saw something about NOTES on (I think) the Research Channel a few weeks back. They were saying that nearly all surgery (well, resections, I guess) will be done this way in another 10-15 years. Does that seem reasonable? (Jane, I'm metaphorically looking at you here.)

Now that was funny, Jane.

Jay, I've never been ogled before metaphorically before.

The technique has promise, no doubt.. and will almost surely find greater application. The biggest risk to guard against is that the technique will be overapplied to places where it isn't the best choice for the patient.

Since, in Jane's case, the "tissues" are outside of the thorax, one would hope a doctor utilizing this technique wouldn't get ...you know...lost? With all the cases of the wrong leg being amputated and such...