Like everyone else who has open-heart surgery, Sharon Earp sports a scar that cuts across her chest from her sternum to just below the clavicle. But unlike many other heart surgery patients, Earp doesn't wear turtlenecks to hide the scars. Instead, the 45-year-old administrative assistant dons t-shirts and v-necks, which invites strangers to ask her about the surgery that saved her life seven year...

• Paige Bierma
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• March 11, 2013
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• • Heart Bypass Support Groups Surgery: Misc.

Do I need heart bypass surgery? Many people with coronary heart disease owe their lives to heart bypass surgery. In this operation, a surgeon uses a vessel from another part of the body to create a detour around a blocked artery, thus restoring blood flow to the heart. A report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology called the operation -- first pioneered in the 1960s -- "one of the...

• Chris Woolston
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• March 11, 2013
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• • Heart / Stroke-Related: Coronary-Artery Disease Heart Bypass Surgery: Misc.

What's so smart about teeth that only cause trouble? "Wisdom teeth" may seem like a misnomer, especially since people often have to have them removed. But these teeth -- also known as third molars -- usually arrive in the late teen years, a time traditionally seen as the passage to adulthood and an age of wisdom, hence the optimistic name. The main problem is that wisdom teeth usually try to grow...

• Laurie Udesky
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• March 11, 2013
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• • Dental Problems: Misc. Surgery: Misc.

What is scoliosis? Nobody has a completely straight spine. Even if you sit as stiff as a board, the vertebrae in the middle of your back gently and naturally curve inward. Some people's spines, however, take a different sort of turn. In addition to curving inward, they curve from side to side. This condition is called scoliosis, from the Greek word for crooked, "skoliosis." Most cases of scolios...

• Chris Woolston, M.S.
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• March 11, 2013
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• • Backache Diseases &, Conditions: Misc. Scoliosis Surgery: Misc.

You've made it through many of the hard choices in your breast cancer treatment only to confront another major one: whether -- and when -- to have your breast (or breasts) reconstructed after your mastectomy. Some women want a fully reconstructed breast that looks as much as possible like the original. Others want a new breast that simply helps them look the way they like in a bathing suit. Still ...

• Michele Simon
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• March 11, 2013
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• • Cancer: Breast Cancer: Misc. Surgery: Misc.

To treat prostate cancer, doctors perform tens of thousands of surgeries each year. In recent years, one procedure -- called a radical prostatectomy -- has become a fine art, says J. Brantley Thrasher, MD, a professor of urologic surgery at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City. While side effects like incontinence and impotence are still major concerns, most patients respond well...

• Chris Woolston
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• March 11, 2013
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• • Cancer: Prostate Men's Problems: Misc. Prostate Problems Prostate Problems: Management Surgery: Misc.

You go to the hospital when you are sick or injured and need care. The last thing you expect is that the hospital will make you sicker. But for up to 10 percent of hospital patients, that's exactly what happens. It turns out that hospitals are a breeding ground for infections -- many of which are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estim...

• Nancy Montgomery
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• March 11, 2013
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• • Hospitals Infections: Misc. Surgery: Misc.