Venezuala has the honor (?) of holding the most international beauty pageant winners in the world. The women are known for their beauty – but a lot of that beauty is created, not natural. Of course, this isn’t unusual, cosmetic surgery to enlarge breasts, “fix” eyes, remove sags, and to make other so-called improvements aren’t unusual, even in the beauty pageant world. But it seems that Venezuala may have the corner on the market when it comes to expectations that the women will have surgery to be as beautiful as possible, whether they can afford it or not.

Women feel that the surgery is so important that they’ll do just about anything to finance their procedure be it using credit cards or even downsizing their home. The need for cosmetic surgery is so pervasive that families begin talking about it at a young age and some surgeries, like breast enhancements are even considered a right of passage. A plastic surgeon quoted in this article, Using your plastic for plastic surgery.., says that three or four out of every seven Venezualan women have breast augmentation.

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

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There were 18 contestants and they had to prove that they had had cosmetic surgery to be eligible; Botox and other types of injections were not considered. While the type of surgery didn’t matter, the majority of the women did have breast enlargements. Others had nose jobs. One had her toes operated on.

The winners and prizes?

The women weren’t the only ones to receive prizes – their plastic surgeons did too. Among the women though, the winner received an apartment in Budapest, the first runner-up a new car, and the second runner up the equivalent of 10,800 dollars (U.S.).

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

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But for millions of people around the world, there is no choice. The surgery treatment they need requires them to have a general anesthetic (GA). And anyone who has to have a GA really should get all the facts before that happens. Unfortunately, that’s not always something they get from their doctor or other health professions.

This book ‘Before the Scalpel’, however, spells everything out in a clear and concise manner. Easy to read and with plenty of visual aids, it covers pretty much everything you need to know, including questions to ask your doctor.

Written by Professor Panchati Dhar, MD, board certified in internal medicine and anesthesiology, Before the Scalpel covers almost every situation, from special needs of obese patients to specialized surgeries such as dentistry, cosmetic, and obstetrics. It also addresses issues such as the diabetic and surgery.

It even provides descriptions and explanations of the anesthesia’s tools – the equipment, drugs, and instruments used to administer anesthesia – and a comprehensive glossary.

Definitely worth a read if you or someone in your family is surgery bound.

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Warning: Not for the squemish. Catherine takes us on a tour of the history of surgery in all it’s pre-painkiller, pre-antiseptic glory and then head to the present and future with demos of some of the newest tools for surgery, nimble robot hands able to work through the smallest of surgical incisions.

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French surgeon Laurent Lantieri, one of the doctors involved in operating on a Chinese man severely disfigured by a genetic disease, believes they are becoming a medical reality. He’s quoted in a recent article in The Lancet as saying “There is no reason to think these face transplants would not be as common as kidney or liver transplants one day”.

Just three years after the successful partial face transplant for a French woman viciously attacked by a dog, two more people have benefited from partial face transplants using tissue from deceased or comatose donors.

One case involved a Chinese man who had been attacked by a bear in 2004, losing his left eye, nose, and a large portion of his upper lip and left check. After an initial attempt to repair the damage using tissue from the man’s forearm failed, the doctors decided to try a partial face transplant in 2006. The 18-hour operation resulted in a greatly improved facial appearance and the ability of the man to drink, eat, and talk normally again.

In the partial face transplant case involved a French man with a massive disfiguring neurofibroma. This tumor was so large that it was causing complete paralysis of the right side of his face and partial paralysis of the left. During the 15 hour operation, the tumor was removed and a partial face transplant restored the appearance and function of his face. As a result, the man’s quality of life has greatly improved.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The next step, some surgeons believe, is to do a full-face transplant…

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The people of her rural Indian village did not see this as a deformity. They believed that she was a ‘gift from God’, christened her ‘Lakshmi‘ after the four-armed Hindu Goddess of wealth, and queued outside the house to be blessed by the girl.

But the actual cause of the extra limbs was that the girl had a twin who hadn’t fully developed and instead became attached to Lakshmi’s body at the pelvis.

Lakshmi made headlines around the world last month when a team of surgeons spent 27 hours removing the extra limbs, separating her spinal cord and kidney from the twin, re-orientating the bladder and genital systems, and then closing up the pelvic girdle.

It was an amazing story with a heartwarming ending…

Now, just three months after the surgery, she is taking her first steps. According to Sharan Patil, chief orthopedic surgeon and chairman of Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore where the surgery was performed, Lakshmi is ‘… “now moving with a walker, holding onto objects — a table, a chair — and moving a little bit…”

Now you can watch Lakshmi’s journey on National Geographic Channel this coming Sunday (22 June) at 9pm Pacific.

If, like me, you can’t get the National Geographic Channel you can still get learn more about Lakshmi by visiting National Geographic online.

View the picture gallery, read a Q&A with Doctor Sharan Patil (lead surgeon), and see a preview of the hour long episode at the National Geographic website.

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 Their son Rhett suffers from chiari malformation , a structural defect that puts pressure on the brain stem which controls vital functions such as sleep, speech, circulation, and breathing. But thanks to experimental surgery designed to relieve this pressure, Rhett (and his parents) are now sleeping…

Unable to Forget – although most of us would love to have better recall of past events, no one wants to remember every single life event. After all, there are somethings in life that you just don’t want to remember. But for one woman, all events – good and bad – are stuck in her memory and won’t let go. She is Jill Price, author of ‘The Woman Who Can’t Forget’.

A Personality Test for Your Cat – The Feline-ality program, developed by Dr. Emily Weiss of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is little like a ‘What Kind of Cat are you?’ quiz.

Might sound entertaining but this program, currently running in 45 shelters, aims to end the animal-human mismatches that often results in the cat being returned to the shelter. Prospective adoptees fill in a questionaire which gives them a color code. This color code will match up with a suitable cat personality – ‘leader of the band’, ‘the personal assistant’, or the ‘private investigator’ – that will make for a happy home for both human and cat.

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Now let’s be clear that we are in no way, no how poking any kind of fun at these poor people. But it’s just amazing to see the different ways the body can betray itself, is it not? Of course it is.

So next up in our Weird Deformity Breakdown is Jingle Luis, a 15-year-old girl from the Philippines who was born with feet clubbed so badly they twist backwards and upside down (see a photo slideshow at MSN.com)

Today, Jingle had surgery to begin correction on her feet at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. And while clubfoot occurs in about one in 1,000 births, treatment usually begins before the condition gets anywhere near as far as Jingle’s.

The problem? Jingle also suffers from spina bifida (a birth defect that involves the incomplete development of the spinal cord or its coverings), leading her early physicians to believe she may not live long; therefore no treatment for her clubbed feet was ever given.

As for now, Jingle’s US surgeon says, “It’s like putting together an Erector Set,” and anticipates it taking a month to rotate the feet a few degrees at a time. And when all is said and done, what does Jingle hope to do? Wear high heels, of course. Good girl!

We sure wish Jingle all the best, but we also wonder:

What is the strangest deformity you’ve ever seen or heard of? Any idea how that patient is doing now? We’d love to hear from you and maybe even see what we can dig up on the deformities you share. Leave us a comment and let us know.

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Now, you will never, ever find me saying that plastic surgery is wrong. That is a completely individual choice, and one I would never even rule out for myself. But what you will find is me noting my surprise that there is a need for such a book.

Dr. Michael Saulzhauer, the author of “My Beautiful Mommy”, due out this Mother’s Day, drafted the book’s manuscript after seeing moms with their kids in tow during plastic surgery consultation appointments. He believed the kids viewed the surgery as scary, and wanted to assure them that their Mommy would be even more beautiful than ever – she just had to deal with some bandages and a few owies first.

Some supporters say the book will help explain why Mommy would choose to go to the doctor and to have surgery when she isn’t sick or hurt. And with the rise in the amount of “Mommy Makeovers” (tummy tuck and breast implant combos), surely this is something more and more kids are left wondering about.

Now while I applaud Dr. Saulzhauer’s efforts, I am stunned that mothers are taking their children to consultation appointments. I’m all about sharing special moments with my kids and I know that keeping secrets is “bad”, but aren’t there just some things in life that are better left to more mature audiences? Do we not do enough to force our kids to grow up too fast that now we need to expose them to how to fix their imperfections, show them all that’s “wrong” with Mommy, and pretty much ensure they’ll be scarred for life when they see their mother strip down to her skivvies (or less) in front of another man (if the surgeon’s male, of course). Just my two cents there.

So, what do you think of all this? Of plastic surgery in general, about the book, or about toting kids to plastic surgery appointments? Let us know.

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Let’s talk transplants…

US doctors at John Hopkins Hospital recently performed what is believed to be the world’s first simulanteous six-way kidney transplant. Can you imagine that? Twelve people were operated on at the same time, with kidneys removed from six people and transplanted into six other people.

Why all at once? In the words of Jeanne Heise who received a kidney from one donor while her husband was donating a kidney to another patient…

“The waiting list for a kidney is very long and too many people die while waiting. With this group procedure, more and more people can beat kidney disease and live long productive lives.”

John Hopkins Hospital helped pioneer this system which matches up several groups of people at one time and have been doing these simultaneous transplants for the past three years. But this is the first time they tried a six-way kidney transplant.

And what about reproduction…

I’m sure everyone by now has watched or read news reports about the man who is pregnant. It’s sure got people talking and many of them have very strong opinions about the pros and cons about this pregnancy. Thomas Beatie, who was a woman and is now a man, was recently on Oprah defending his decision and his right to become pregnant and have a child…

“I feel it’s not a male or female desire to have a child. It’s a human need. I’m a person and I have the right to have a biological child.”

Meanwhile, in India…

According to this news report. Shiypuri District authorities in Madhya Pradesh have come up with a novel idea – they are motivating men to undergo a vasectomy in exchange for a gun license. Apparently guys living in this region equate guns with prestige and as a consequence, this promotion has resulted in 150 men undergoing vasectomies in the past four months. Is this for real? Think I prefer the March Madness promotion!!!

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