The future of AN surgery: painless and scarless?

[jerseygirl]

Hello,

Just read an article in today's news about painless and scarless surgery in the future that can be done through a natural body opening:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080519092213.htm

This is how it can be applied to AN: a person diagnozed with AN goes to the surgeon who tells him to open his/her mouth wide open while the endoscope gets inserted. A few minutes later everything is done and the patient goes home.

I will keep dreaming.... At least it is painless and scarless ... and makes me feel good!
 
                                Eve

[Jim Scott]

Hi, Eve:

Thanks for the link.  Interesting, to say the least. 

As surgical procedures continue to progress, I'm sure AN surgery will become simpler and hopefully, less 'invasive'.  Look at how far AN surgery has evolved in just 20 years!   Although it won't be a factor for most of us, I feel confident that in the future, AN surgery will no longer be a somewhat risky proposition and require hours and hours to perform.  O.K., maybe not, but hey, we can hope! 

Jim

[leapyrtwins]

Very interesting article, Eve.

I'm always amazed by new medical technology, although I'm just fine with my surgery the way it was performed.

I had no pain and my scar has all by disappeared only 1 year post op.  I couldn't have asked for a better outcome 

Jan

[jerseygirl]

Jan,

What a fabulous outcome! Every newbie wants to hear about one. I, on the other hand, went through so much with my first surgery and comparatively little with the second one that I am counting on the technology that helped me the second time to improve even further. I am always on the lookout.

                  Eve

[Boppie]

I wonder how this would work on tumors of the skull where bone openings were concerned?  Someone on this board had an AN removed endoscopically.

[jerseygirl]

Boppie,

Chopper, IXTA and myself (second AN surgery for me ) had our AN removed endoscopically. This article is talking about even further technical improvement - no cutting at all but going through an existing natural opening. It is already being done for patients with pituitary brain tumors where the neurosurgeons started going through the nose. 20 years ago, when I had my first AN surgery, all pituitary tumors were removed via traditional method. I was over 30 days in a hospital and as bad as things were for me, I felt priviledged to have had an AN, not a pituitary tumor. I would think AN would be better reached through the mouth if pituitary tumor can be reached through the nose. That would be great!

                     Eve

[TP]

I am amazed how far we have come in a few years with most surgeries. I had a friend a few weeks ago had her gall bladder removed on a Tuesday and her dr said she could go to work the next day!!! She had 3 small holes in her belly. She woke up and sat at her pc for a few hours and felt tired and decided to go back to bed but worked the next day. This is unreal. I had another friend whose dad had their gall bladder removed about 12 years ago and died due to complications from that major surgery where they use to cut your side open to remove your gall bladder. I am still amazed how my dr corrected my double vision. I still don't know how she did it!

[yardtick]

Hi TP,

I had my gall bladder out Dec 2005, ten days before Christmas.  I had 4 small incisions and I'll tell you there is NO WAY myself or anyone could return back to work the following day.  I was off for three weeks.  The following day after the surgery I couldn't move.  Think about it they cut right thru your belly button, below the middle of your breast, and two smaller incisions on your right side. They blow you up with gas, and the gas lodges in your shoulders.  That feeling is almost tortuous.  The whole thing is painful, I was on t-3's for several days.  Sleeping was difficult because you are like a turtle on its back, and every time you try to get out of bed, it is painful.

Listen I'm not a wimp, I've had 4 children and I was up and moving shortly afterwards.  In my opinion childbirth was much easier than having my gall bladder removed, mind you I was lucky I did not need C-sections, that would be a completely different story

Anne Marie

[HeadCase2]

  There are some exciting treatments being developed through research.  Some that have the potential to, at some point in the future, change brain tumor treatment to a vacine rather than the current surgery, radiation, and chemo treatments.  Here's roughly how it works; a vacine is developed that targets and ataches itself to some unique protein structure that only the tumor cells have, effectively marking the tumor cells for attack by the immune system.  Here's an article that explains how this works in more detail,  http://btan.org/index.php/2008/01/14/     
Regards,
 Rob

[Jackie]

  There are some exciting treatments being developed through research.  Some that have the potential to, at some point in the future, change brain tumor treatment to a vacine rather than the current surgery, radiation, and chemo treatments.  Here's roughly how it works; a vacine is developed that targets and ataches itself to some unique protein structure that only the tumor cells have, effectively marking the tumor cells for attack by the immune system.  Here's an article that explains how this works in more detail,  http://btan.org/index.php/2008/01/14/     
Regards,
 Rob

Wow!!! Very interesting article!!! Wouldn't it be great if it was perfected now? Thanks for sharing!!!

[TP]

Anne Marie, I totally agree with you. When my friend told me her Dr said she could go back to work the next day I told her she was crazy. She had her surgery on a Tuesday and worked a few hours each day the rest of the week. She was ticked off at her Dr because he told her she could work and even go to the gym the next day but she felt very tired and had pain in her gut. However, she did recover and was back in the swing of things the next week. I am totally amazed!