Fecal Transplant, Leg Breast Implant -- Two Procedures You Might Not Have Heard Of

Fecal Transplant Normalizes Bacterial Health

Call it fecal transplant, fecal transfusion or human probiotic infusion - we're talking poop. A bona fide medical procedure, the idea of undergoing a fecal transplant most likely has not entered your thought process until after watching Grey's Anatomy.

Pooh-poohed in Entertainment Weekly alongside the cast's liaisons with the dearly departed, it bears mentioning that fecal transplants are actually for real.

Fecal Bacteriotherapy Used To Cure Patients With Clostridium difficile

A bacterium infecting the colon, C. difficile eradicates the healthy bacterial flora that exists in the human gut and sets itself up instead. Symptoms of this switch are bouts of severe abdominal pain, constipation, bloating, and all the other gastrointestinal symptoms you don't want to read about over midmorning breakfast.

Considered by some a sensationalized killer bug and a real threat by others, Clostridium difficile is literally found everywhere and it is deadly. Fecal bacteriotherapy - the fecal transplant - is controversial but it yields results. CBC News Canada explained more than a year ago that in Scandinavia fecal transfusions have become the healthcare standard when dealing with these bacteria.

At the center of the human probiotic infusion is a stool sample from a healthy individual which will be liquefied and transplanted via enema into the suffering patient. Quoting Dr. Tom Louie from Calgary, the procedure is summed up rather simply: "It takes me about an hour and I leave it in there overnight. I'm hoping that some of these normal bugs will come and find a home, and when they find a home it will kick out the C. difficile."

From Braille Tattoo To Tattoo Breast Implants

It started out at Berlin's Universität der Künsteas a Braille tattoo for the blind. Implants under the skin would cause raised up skin to form Braille symbols a blind person could identify by touch. Another medical story we missed in 2007, this procedure has been around and perfected for a bit more than a year now.

Lane Jensen - Canadian aficionado to the art and science of tattooing, body piercing, and permanent makeup application - sported some amazing leg breast implants as a direct result. Actually, it is the lady he has tattooed on his leg that received a set of breast implants at the anatomically correct location, making his tattoo stand out in more ways than one. Life in the Fast Lane shows an up-close picture of the 3D tattoo.

The procedure was not as successful as he had hoped, and even though he was willing and able to perform auto surgery on his leg, the lady's breast implants could not be saved - this time around.

What will they think of next?

Sources: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20241945,00.html; http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/792947/what_is_clostridium_difficile.html?cat=5; http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/11/13/fecal-transplant.html?poop=2; http://www.digital.udk-berlin.de/en/projects/summer07/haupt/bodytech/braille.html; http://www.lanejensen.com/; http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/extreme-tattoos-breast-implants/offbeat-news