See if you can swallow this: Albert Pagliuca didn't want to have scars as a result of a surgery to remove his gallbladder so he allowed doctors to detach and remove the organ through his mouth.
Washingtonpost.com even has video of the surgery, complete with warnings for viewers who may not be able to stomach the surgery, which uses a flexible endoscope equipped with small instruments including a scapel and sutures.
Besides being scarless, the surgery, called natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (or NOTES for short) did have its other benefits as well -- Pagliuca was able to get back to work more quickly and had less pain throughout his recovery period.
The new type of surgery is still in its experimental phase, with only 400 surgeries performed throughout the world thus far, but surgeons say it has the potential to revolutionize the way surgeries are undertaken.
The mouth isn't always used in the surgeries, since doctors can use any open orifice in the body. I'll leave it up to you to figure out what that means exactly.
I think I'll stick to traditional surgery thankyouverymuch.
-- Kat