Cadavers Made to Blink with Artificial Muscles

[Kadie]

Cadavers Made to Blink with Artificial Muscles

Charles Q. Choi
LiveScience Contributor
livescience.com – 2 hrs 7 mins ago

Surgeons made cadavers blink with artificial muscles, experiments that could in the future help restore the ability of thousands of patients with facial paralysis to open and close their eyes on their own.

Some people can't blink their eyes. In most patients with so-called permanent eyelid paralysis, the cranial nerve that controls involuntary eye blinking has been damaged by an accident, stroke, injury or surgery to remove a facial tumor. Many of these patients have no functioning nerves nearby that can be rerouted to close the eyelid. Others are born with Mobius syndrome, which is characterized by underdeveloped facial nerves. These people are expressionless and can neither blink nor smile.

Without lubrication from the blinking lid, the eye can develop ulcers and the person can eventually go blind. Currently, eyelid paralysis is treated by one of two approaches. One is to transfer a muscle from the leg into face. However, this option requires six to 10 hours of surgery, creates a wound that can impair the body elsewhere, and is not always suitable for elderly or medically fragile patients.

"I would estimate under 100 of those are done in the United States every year," said researcher Craig Senders, an otolaryngologist at the University of California at Davis.

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100121/sc_livescience/cadaversmadetoblinkwithartificialmuscles

[readmoreoften]

1. That's both awesome and creepy as hell.

[MrCoffee]

2. Bow to your zombie overlords!

Blinking cadavers is only one small step away from a complete zombie apocalypse.

[blm]

13. Paging Mario Bava....Paging Mario Bava

.

[MineralMan]

3. Now science is making zombies?

I thought there was an herb that could do that?

[MercutioATC]

7. Remember, you have to shoot them in the HEAD.

That is all.

[yurbud]

16. G Gordon Liddy, is that you?

[MercutioATC]

17. Did somebody say "G. Gordon Liddy"?

Posting this pic whenever his name is mentioned is just a rule...don't shoot the messenger.

[yurbud]

18. I didn't realize he was an exotic dancer now.

[MercutioATC]

19. Some believe "whore" is a better term.

No disrespect to whores intended.

[Kadie]

20. Ack!!!

My eyes hurt.

[AndyA]

4. Overhead at a funeral home:

"Hey, you want to have some fun with the Smith Family? I hear it will be an open casket service..."

:eyes:

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. I lol'ed

[chromotone]

5. Man, where were these blinking cadavers when I was dating!

There were some dates when a wink was all I could hope for...

[Blue Owl]

8. How about a winking cadaver?

Even creepier -- in a Sarah Palin/GOP kind of way.

[ddeclue]

9. Rush will soon be able to blink again!

:rofl:

[GoCubsGo]

10. And, Bill Frist diagnoses them as still alive

Via video, of course.

[Bluebear]

11. Dr. Jan Garavaglia announced today she is taking a sabbatical...

...after seeing unmentioned phenomena at her morgue facility in Orange County, Florida...

[Solly Mack]

12. That explains Scalia's longevity

[guitar man]

14. nothing new

Keith Richards has been doing this for years! :rofl:

[Bucky]

15. Is that all? Shit, I thought this was gonna be a thread about Pat Buchanan.

Forget about headshots with that zombie... he's safely protected it by hiding it up his ass.