SPOTLIGHT GALLERY

When a woman has early-stage breast cancer, doctors usually remove just the lump, not the whole breast. This is called lumpectomy. After surgery, most patients need weeks of radiation therapy. They drive to the hospital Monday through Friday for three to six weeks. Each session takes time, energy, and patience. For someone who lives far from a cancer center, has young children, or works full time, this schedule can feel impossible. Worse, traditional radiation does not just

Think of your heart as a house with four rooms and four doors. The aortic valve is one of those doors. It opens to let blood flow out to your body and then shuts to stop blood from leaking backward. As people get older, that door can become stiff, narrow, and hard to open, a condition called aortic stenosis. Patients often feel tired, short of breath, or dizzy. Without treatment, a bad aortic valve can lead to heart failure. For many years, the only way to fix it was open-he

Immunology is the study of the immune system and is a very important branch of the medical and biological sciences, playing a crucial role in organ transplant surgery. This type of surgery involves removing a healthy organ from a donor and giving it to someone who has organ failure. It involves two surgeries that happen around the same time: One for the donor (to remove the organ) and one for the recipient (to get the organ). (Immunity, Inflammation and Transplantation - NIH

For patients who have suffered devastating injuries to the face or limbs, conventional reconstructive surgery and prosthetic devices can restore some function, but often cannot fully replace what was lost. Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA) has emerged as one of the most remarkable advances in reconstructive surgery, offering the possibility of transplanting complex body parts such as hands and faces from deceased donors to recipients. Unlike traditional organ

When one thinks of surgery, we think of scalpels and pads and blood all around. But what if the surgeon isn’t there to see the blood? In a groundbreaking medical first, Dr. Zhang Yu performed a transcontinental robotic prostatectomy 8000km away from his patient, making global headlines. The first form of telesurgery manifested as surgical robots, appearing in the 1970s. Their upbringing was encouraged by NASA, which wished to provide medical assistance to astronauts remotely

Chronic wounds remain a significant challenge in healthcare. They affect millions of patients globally and are the leading causes of infection, prolonged hospitalization, and reduced quality of life. Traditional treatment approaches (including wound dressing and antibiotics) can be effective. Nevertheless, many wounds continue to heal slowly or incompletely. As a result, researchers have increasingly focused on technologies capable of not only protecting wounds but also activ

In cosmetic dermatology, a treatment that has gained attention is the “vampire facelift.” Despite its spooky name, this surgery actually does not involve surgery or traditional incisions. Instead, it uses a patient’s own blood to create platelet-rich plasma (PRP), which is then injected or applied to the face to improve skin texture as well as reduce fine lines. In the world today, it’s very popular because many are interested in the vampire facelift because it is advertised

Electrodessication and Curettage (ED&C), is a common procedure used to treat certain abnormal skin growths. It is frequently performed on certain types of skin cancers and some benign lesions that are considered at low risk. This technique combines mechanical scraping of the lesion with the use of electrical current to destroy remaining abnormal cells. Because it is quick, and can be performed in an outpatient clinic, the ED&C is an important tool in everyday dermatology prac

The human brain is constantly communicating with itself. The two hemispheres, left and right, exchange signals millions of times a second through a thick band of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. But for patients with severe, drug-resistant epilepsy, that communication becomes a liability. Seizures spread across the brain like wildfire, jumping from one hemisphere to the other and causing catastrophic, uncontrolled electrical activity. Corpus callosotomy, a surgical pr

Non-invasive therapy: The set-up of the SCiP device, demonstrating the placement of the non-invasive electrodes over the cervical and thoracic regions of the spinal cord. (Courtesy: CC BY 4.0/Nat. Commun. 10.1038/s41467-022-33208-w) As the power of technology surges, the field of medicine has been empowered to create new discoveries and ways to treat disease and conditions. Among new medical innovations is neuromodulation. Neuromodulation is the ability to utilize magnetic, e

Pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy (PIPAC) is an experimental treatment for advanced cancers that have spread to the lining of the abdominal cavity (belly). Instead of giving normal chemotherapy through a vein, doctors use surgery to spray the cancer drugs directly into the abdomen as a fine mist under pressure, helping the medicine reach the tumor cells better. The procedure starts by putting the patient under general anesthesia, so the patient does not f

When most people think about high school science projects, they probably picture baking soda volcanoes or simple chemistry experiments. However, students at Lambert High School in Forsyth County, Georgia, took their ideas further by developing a new way to detect and treat Lyme disease. Their project, called LANCET, was created for the International Genetically Engineered Machine, or iGEM, competition and has gained worldwide attention. Lyme disease is one of the most common

The famous ‘voice box’ isn’t actually a box! It’s a cartilaginous structure composed of two bands/infoldings of muscle and mucous membranes called vocal cords. They gather when you speak and separate when you breathe. When one of the two is paralyzed, or when one is weak, the voice can become an inaudible whisper when you exert the force and breath of a shout. The medialization laryngoplasty (formerly known as the thyroplasty) is a viable course of treatment. The patient is p

Microwave Ablation (MWA) is a minimally invasive procedure used to destroy solid tumors in patients who cannot undergo traditional surgery due to age, comorbidities, or tumor location. Rather than cutting out the tumor, MWA used high-frequency electromagnetic energy to heat and kill cancer cells from within. It is most commonly applied to tumors of the liver, lung, and kidney and operates at frequencies of either 915 MHz or 2.45 GHz. As researchers have noted, MWA has emerged

Robotics lymphatic supermicrosrugery is a cutting-edge surgical approach that used a robotic platform to perform extremely delicate operations omn lymphatic vessels, which can be as small as .3 mm in diameter. The Symani Surgical System, developed by Medical Microinstruments (MMI), is the primary device used for this purpose. It was purpose-built for microsurgery and supermicrosurgery, featuring the world's smallest wristed robotic instruments, tremor filtration, and motion s

Rotationplasty is a specialized reconstructive surgery used primarily to treat bone cancers such as osteosarcoma that occur near the knee, most often in children. Instead of removing the entire limb, this procedure preserves part of the leg and supports long term mobility and function. The procedure involves removing the diseased portion of the leg, which typically includes part of the femur, the knee joint, and part of the tibia. Surgeons carefully preserve important structu

Brainstem gliomas refer to tumors, typically astrocytomas, located in the brainstem. They may develop in different brainstem regions: midbrain and medulla gliomas are usually low grade (grade I), while pons gliomas are usually grade IV due to their faster growth and progression. The brainstem generally controls many critical functions including breathing, swallowing, and heart rate. Thus, the treatment for these tumors require careful consideration. The three typical treatmen

Cardiac Sympathetic Denervation (CSD) can reduce the burden of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator shocks in impatience with structural heart disease and recurrent ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Ventricular tachyarrhythmias are abnormal heart rhythms that make the lower chambers of your heart twitch instead of pumping and can stop your heart from supplying blood to the rest of your body. There are three main types of ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Preventricular contractions

Postoperative delirium is a sudden disturbance in one’s mental functioning that can occur after surgery. This condition is often characterized by confusion, disorientation, and fluctuating levels of consciousness. Although postoperative delirium is seen across all age groups, it is often underdiagnosed in adolescents. Research suggests that various factors, such as pain, sleep disruption, exposure to anesthesia, and preexisting psychological conditions, can all contribute to

Cognitive biases are defined as systematic deviations from rational thinking. In high-stress surgical conditions, even highly trained surgeons are prone to falling to cognitive biases and making irrational choices. This can impact crucial decisions made when diagnosing patients and even while conducting surgery. Research indicates that certain biases such as anchoring, overconfidence, and confirmation bias can all play a direct role in surgical outcomes. Although these menta