utility and quality of life

[aridice]

it kind of pisses me off that medical technology is good enough to give us penile implants, yet this is the best we can do for someone who has lost their face.

(Yes, I know that impotence due to prostatectomies affects way more people than mucormycosis or horrific facial trauma.  No, i'm not denying the importance of having a sex life.  Still, when

Comments

[msarcher]

Ugh, by a different, but similar twist of utility some time ago Viagra was being covered by insurance companies while birth control was not. Fortunately state legislatures are remedying that one.

So we need the plastic surgeons to work on this one? It seems like in some ways it may be a tougher task since the external casing is gone and people are very visually sensitive to the appearance of the face. Sure you don't want to work on it?

[aridice]

Plastic/head and neck surgeons can do a lot of very cool things in terms of reconstruction, but it's still rather difficult to get anywhere near aesthetic perfection. Also, for patients who may be receiving radiation/chemotherapy for head and neck cancer, there are lots of issues with tissue viability, and some of them (as in the case of the gentleman I met) are simply no longer operable.