Surgery

A 58-year-old man with terminal heart disease has become the second patient to receive a pig's heart, in a complicated, high-risk xenotransplant. The first recipient died last year from complications, two months after the landmark world-first surgery.

It's normal to feel anxious about going under the knife, but stress before surgery can range from mild anxiety to overwhelming fear. Now, researchers believe a tech more often seen in video games – augmented reality – can help relieve that anxiety.

In another encouraging step toward relieving transplant organ shortages, surgeons at NYU Langone Health have kept a genetically engineered pig kidney alive and fully functioning inside a brain-dead patient for over a month for the first time.

Clinical trials of a novel non-opioid analgesic have found it to be effective in reducing acute postoperative pain, opening the door to a new way of managing short-term pain that avoids the pitfalls associated with using opioids.

Rebuilding knees with kangaroo tissue is one step, or hop, closer to being a reality, with human trials set to get under way in 2024. Their tendons are six times stronger than our own and are more sustainable and durable than current surgery options.

In an exciting step forward in surgery advances, the first successful liver transplant performed by a robot has taken place in the US, offering minimal invasiveness and speedy recovery time. Clinics now plan to ramp up wider use of this innovative tech.

A 31-year-old woman desperately needed a heart transplant to save her life, but doctors knew her body would reject the organ. So they took an unusual approach: they also replaced her healthy liver. The procedure was a groundbreaking success.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have developed a new AI-powered tool to help brain surgeons combat cancer. CHARM rapidly evaluates tumorous tissue during surgery to help professionals make on-the-spot decisions about how to proceed.

A new study has found a novel, non-surgical method that is very effective at healing a common sporting injury, rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament or ACL. The method could be a way to help sufferers avoid surgery altogether.

Surgery to remove brain tumors comes with risks, one being that it may cause damage to the surrounding tissues. Researchers have found that biomarkers found in the blood are a useful new tool for tracking brain tissue damage on a cellular level.

Whether it's an impoverished nation, a battlefield or a disaster site, there are places where doctors have to perform surgery outside of a sterile operating room. That's where the SurgiField system comes in, as it's basically a miniature pop-up O.R.

Starting with fibers taken from pig tissue, researchers developed dissolving sutures that can be loaded with molecular sensors or medication. The hope is that they could speed healing and/or alert doctors when something is wrong at a surgical site.