No one can dispute that science and medicine do not mix when you consider some of the amazing medical advancements made in the last 40 years. Consider for example the development of balloon angioplasty, a minimally invasive surgical technique where a medical balloon is guided through a major heart blood vessel then inflated to allow the blood vessel, previously restricted by plaque, to pump more blood.
Established in the late 1970s, balloon angioplasty, together with a small wire mesh tube called a stent, has led to thousands of heart patients getting the procedure to skip bypass heart surgery.
Not only has balloon angioplasty become a very popular and potentially life-saving surgery for heart patients, but in 2005, the FDA approved the same general idea for sinus sufferer's called balloon sinuplasty.
Of course, with medical advancements come risks. That's why surgeons and their staff wear medical masks designed to reflect debris during laser surgery, such as those from a surgical supply store. USA Medical and Surgical Supplies is an all-inclusive medical supply store, which helps doctors or hospitals stock and re-stock medical supplies quickly. They carry products that the medical field has developed to help their patients in so many different ways.
Another highly popular device is the use of a laser for surgery. A laser, which stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, is a device designed to put all the phases of a light's electric waves into a similar and narrow pattern so that the laser produces a very bright, very narrow, and precise beam of light.
Again, cardiologists were the first to use a laser for surgery, dating as far back as 1960, but it was an ophthalmologist, Dr. Gholam Peyman, who patented the use of lasers to correct eye problems that people are most familiar with.
According to Stanford University, laser surgery today, in addition to vision correction and the removal of cataracts, are used to remove tumors, seal blood vessels during surgery, and to remove warts, tattoos, birthmarks, and wrinkles.
Another major advancement in the scientific/medical world is, of course, organ transplants. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, the first successful kidney transplant took place way back in 1954, but liver, lung, heart, pancreas, and intestines have been transplanted, particularly since advancements in the late 1980s. These transplants later produced many ways to reduce the rejection of transplanted organs.
One of the problems, of course, is that you need a donor in order to transplant an organ. The majority of these come from accident victims that have consented with their state to be an organ donor in case of catastrophic events. Although you can sign up to be an organ donor in all 50 states, according to organdonor.gov statistics, only three out of every one thousand people die in a way that allows their organs to be used by someone else.
This brings up the future possibility of cloning. Although it seems like a brave new world with many ethical questions to answer, it seems inevitable that cloning, using stem cells to replace organs, will eventually be possible. It may be far into the future, but many forward-thinking scientists believe cloning at least some organs may be possible in the future.
There could be many candidates for number five on our list, but we'll give the nod to the bionic eye.
A bionic eye, otherwise known as a visual prosthesis, is an electrical device that provides artificial vision to people who are currently blind but could previously see. Bionic eyes work by electrically stimulating parts of the brain that show flashes of light, called phospheres, which are flashes of light emitted through the brain, not through natural light. Think, for example, of seeing colors with your eyes closed within your mind.
Currently, a bionic eye provides a very limited image that, through training, allows a blind person with previous sight to be able to determine basic vision tasks such as identifying a person, object or a doorway, But in the future, the need for guide dogs and limited sight may be the prognosis for everyone.
Balloon Angioplasty
Established in the late 1970s, balloon angioplasty, together with a small wire mesh tube called a stent, has led to thousands of heart patients getting the procedure to skip bypass heart surgery.
Not only has balloon angioplasty become a very popular and potentially life-saving surgery for heart patients, but in 2005, the FDA approved the same general idea for sinus sufferer's called balloon sinuplasty.
Medical Supplies
Of course, with medical advancements come risks. That's why surgeons and their staff wear medical masks designed to reflect debris during laser surgery, such as those from a surgical supply store. USA Medical and Surgical Supplies is an all-inclusive medical supply store, which helps doctors or hospitals stock and re-stock medical supplies quickly. They carry products that the medical field has developed to help their patients in so many different ways.
Laser Surgery
Another highly popular device is the use of a laser for surgery. A laser, which stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, is a device designed to put all the phases of a light's electric waves into a similar and narrow pattern so that the laser produces a very bright, very narrow, and precise beam of light.
Again, cardiologists were the first to use a laser for surgery, dating as far back as 1960, but it was an ophthalmologist, Dr. Gholam Peyman, who patented the use of lasers to correct eye problems that people are most familiar with.
According to Stanford University, laser surgery today, in addition to vision correction and the removal of cataracts, are used to remove tumors, seal blood vessels during surgery, and to remove warts, tattoos, birthmarks, and wrinkles.
Organ Transplants
Another major advancement in the scientific/medical world is, of course, organ transplants. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, the first successful kidney transplant took place way back in 1954, but liver, lung, heart, pancreas, and intestines have been transplanted, particularly since advancements in the late 1980s. These transplants later produced many ways to reduce the rejection of transplanted organs.
One of the problems, of course, is that you need a donor in order to transplant an organ. The majority of these come from accident victims that have consented with their state to be an organ donor in case of catastrophic events. Although you can sign up to be an organ donor in all 50 states, according to organdonor.gov statistics, only three out of every one thousand people die in a way that allows their organs to be used by someone else.
This brings up the future possibility of cloning. Although it seems like a brave new world with many ethical questions to answer, it seems inevitable that cloning, using stem cells to replace organs, will eventually be possible. It may be far into the future, but many forward-thinking scientists believe cloning at least some organs may be possible in the future.
Bionic Eye
There could be many candidates for number five on our list, but we'll give the nod to the bionic eye.
A bionic eye, otherwise known as a visual prosthesis, is an electrical device that provides artificial vision to people who are currently blind but could previously see. Bionic eyes work by electrically stimulating parts of the brain that show flashes of light, called phospheres, which are flashes of light emitted through the brain, not through natural light. Think, for example, of seeing colors with your eyes closed within your mind.
Currently, a bionic eye provides a very limited image that, through training, allows a blind person with previous sight to be able to determine basic vision tasks such as identifying a person, object or a doorway, But in the future, the need for guide dogs and limited sight may be the prognosis for everyone.
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