Frontiers of plastic surgery

Every once in a while, I feel compelled to bring you another installment of "frontiers of plastic surgery." Previous installments here, here, and here.

There's good news on the plastic-surgery front. Japanese doctors claim that they have successfully used stem cells from human fat to create additional breast tissue for plastic-surgery purposes.

The story is here, accompanied by a possibly SFW photo and a rather earthy headline. But if you want the headline of the month, and perhaps the year, try The Sun tabloid, which is accompanied by a photo that's NSFW. (The quotation of the week, and perhaps the month, is from Michael Zacharia, the president of the Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery, who said, "Medical insurance companies just refuse to cover it.")

There's also bad news here. Dr. Zacharia says that "the technique could make the detection of subsequent breast cancer more difficult." Which is clearly not good. It's a bug, not a feature.

So my advice is, Don't be an early adopter. Wait for the kinks to be ironed out.

(hat tip: fee simple)