07/16/2007 | Vanessa Ruiz |
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Vagus nerve stimulation therapy. Used to treat epilepsy
by one of my favorite illustrators, Bryan Christie
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a type of treatment in which short bursts of electrical energy are directed into the brain via the vagus nerve, a large nerve in the neck. The energy comes from a battery, about the size of a silver dollar, which is surgically implanted under the skin, usually on the chest. Leads are threaded under the skin and attached to the vagus nerve in the same procedure. The physician programs the device to deliver small electrical stimulation bursts every few minutes. This is a relatively new type of treatment. It may be tried when other treatment is not effective. Just how it works to prevent seizures is being studied.
[via Epilepsy Foundation]
07/11/2007 | Vanessa Ruiz |
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[via Daily Mail]
Imagine living with an agonizing headache for most of your life, only to realize that you’ve had a bullet lodged in your brain for 64 years.
This is exactly what happened to a Chinese grandmother, Jin Guangying, who is living headache free for the first time since she was 13, after having a rusty bullet removed from her brain.
In September 1943, Jin was delivering food to her father, a guerilla soldier stationed in a village near her home in Xiny County, China. She was shot in the head, just above her right ear, by the invading Japanese and immediately fell into a coma. The bullet had already passed through a man’s arm, losing enough momentum to remain inside her skull.
“When I woke up, I found I was at home. My mother had taken me back home, applied herbal medicine to my wound and dressed my head in layers of bandages,†said Jin.
Jin recovered in 3 months, but would suffer from relentless headaches for the next six decades.
“When she suffered from the headaches, she would sometimes babble words we could hardly understand, foaming at the mouth, and sometimes she pounded her head with her fist,†said Wang Zhengping, Jin’s daughter.
While the headaches grew worse over the years, her family could not afford to take her to the doctor.
Her family finally had to borrow money for an x-ray that revealed the 3cm long bullet. On May 3, 2007 after a 4 hour operation doctors removed the rusty bullet.
“If the bullet had passed through Jin’s head, she might have died immediately, because usually the wound left by a bullet leaving the human body will be much larger than the one created when it enters, said Zhou Tang, head of surgery at the Renci Hospital of Suyang County.
07/07/2007 | Vanessa Ruiz |
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Burning your brain
Not sure who the artist is.
[via Arts, Design Blog]
07/06/2007 | Vanessa Ruiz |
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Illustrations by Rich Carthew, a graduate student pursuing his Master of Art and Design at Auckland University of Technolog, New Zealand. He’s studying the interplay between anatomical representation and technology from the time of Vesalius to the present. I’m hoping that Rich will contribute some thought provoking posts to Street Anatomy!
Take a look at his portfolio site for more of his artwork. I suggest looking through his “Visual Diaries”.
07/04/2007 | Vanessa Ruiz |
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I had some technical difficulties with the last post “Interview with top UK medical animation studio Medi-Mation.” I had posted it two days ago, but for some reason the post decided to delete half of itself. It’s all fixed, so it in case you didn’t catch it the first time, here it is in full length below!
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