Heart Heals Itself

The liver will heal and regenerate itself too!
 
Sasha said:
The liver will heal and regenerate itself too!
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Here's something I've always wondered about the liver: the ancient Greeks knew that it regenerated itself (re: the myth of Prometheus). But /how/ did they discover this? Did they stab some animal in the liver, then hope it didn't die immediately, then after it was butchered check the liver?:wacko:
 
Kookaburra said:
Here's something I've always wondered about the liver: the ancient Greeks knew that it regenerated itself (re: the myth of Prometheus). But /how/ did they discover this? Did they stab some animal in the liver, then hope it didn't die immediately, then after it was butchered check the liver?:wacko:
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What many do not know as well, is that ancient Egyptians used frog skins for skin grafts and was very sucessful alike we use pig skin grafts today.

R/r 911
 
Wow, cool! Do you have any book recommendations for books that have cool medical history info like that?
 
Kookaburra said:
Here's something I've always wondered about the liver: the ancient Greeks knew that it regenerated itself (re: the myth of Prometheus). But /how/ did they discover this? Did they stab some animal in the liver, then hope it didn't die immediately, then after it was butchered check the liver?:wacko:
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There were plenty of opportunities to get stabbed in the liver at the time. Also, given that the myth speaks of his liver regenerating overnight, it's possible that they didn't know that livers normally regenerate and just thought it would add to the punishment.

Kookaburra said:
Wow, cool! Do you have any book recommendations for books that have cool medical history info like that?
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I can dig up my sources from a paper on classical Greek and Roman surgical techniques, but they're sort of squicky. For example, one of the more common obstetric instruments was the "birthing hook". No vacuum delivery for these kids.
 
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The transplanting is pretty amazing but this is often accomplished with LVADs (Left Ventricular Assist Devices). Where they are implanted for like a year, and they then can be taken out because the heart muscle re-grows and regains strength.
 
silver said:
The transplanting is pretty amazing but this is often accomplished with LVADs (Left Ventricular Assist Devices). Where they are implanted for like a year, and they then can be taken out because the heart muscle re-grows and regains strength.
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I will have to ask about this tomorrow. We are having a few of the surgical team and rehab nurses come in from Salt Lake City, to discuss LVAD tomorrow morning. We have had numerous patients with LVAD before (almost 10 years now) but they have a new patient with a new type being released and sent home tomorrow. They had taught us that once on LVAD they loose their chance for heart transplantion. Since LVAD device does require a portion of the muscle to be removed.

R/r 911
 
MrConspiracy said:
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I can dig up my sources from a paper on classical Greek and Roman surgical techniques, but they're sort of squicky. For example, one of the more common obstetric instruments was the "birthing hook". No vacuum delivery for these kids.
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oooh, is it anything like the brain-hook the Egyptians used during mummification? Send away, I'm pretty hard to squick. ^_^
 
I just discussed the LVAD team about the use of the device on the girl, and it was not used; rather a "piggy back" heart procedure. This is a method that has been used for a while, where the original heart is left in and the new transplanted heart to assist.
 
It's called a heterotropic heart transplant. Pretty rare.
 
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