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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Hahns Shin)
Subject: Cosmetic Surgery (was Re: Cyber and psychosis)
Date: Fri May 4 17:40:01 2001
<snip>
> those go into your brain! Sixty years ago, people would have been
> aghast at most of the things people do to themselves now with
cosmetic
> surgery ("You got your fat sucked out??") so think of how the times
have
Lipectomies have been with us for a long time. Sources date it back to
even before the birth of Christ in the old Greek and Roman
civilizations. I think the earliest case of lipectomy I've seen
documented in the US is the early 1970's (compare this with breast
cosmetic surgery... I have an old plastic surgery textbook circa 1944
that has several breast procedures, among other procedures).
Lipectomies before liposuction were bloody, complex affairs.
Liposuction started in popular use in 1982 in the US (and really, it
was the precursor to laparoscopic procedures done today) ... nowadays,
plastic surgeons like to call it "liposculpture", because of the
stigma behind the term "liposuction". Facial cosmetic surgery has been
around for a while as well. There are records of skin grafts being
used for facial surgery in India as early as 600 BC. The first cleft
palate operation was in 1827 (imagine, this was before the age of
anesthesia). After every major war, there was a HUGE demand for
reconstructive surgery, especially after both World Wars.

The first plastic surgery textbook for surgeons was written in 1919.
Plastic surgery became a board certified specialty in 1950, though
there were Board exams for plastic surgery as early as 1930. Silicon
breast implants were first available in the early 1960's (the
repercussions of which are still being felt today). Just some more
useless medical trivia for you all.

> changed first. Laser vision correction is becoming very common now,
how
> do you think someone from the 40's would react to the concept of
having
> a laser aimed at and shot at their eye?
Considering lasers were the figments of sci-fi writers (I think back
then, even the comic books called them "heat rays" or "radiation"),
I'd say they'd be shocked and amazed. Frankly, I can't wait to get my
hands on some nanites...

Hahns Shin, MS I
Budding cybersurgeon

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