The UC San Diego Center for the Future of Surgery (love that moniker) has demonstrated a first that I’m not sure I’d want to be part of:

…surgeons at UC San Diego Medical Center removed an inflamed appendix through a patient’s vagina, a first in the United States. Following the 50-minute procedure, the patient, Diana Schlamadinger, reported only minor discomfort. Removal of diseased organs through the body’s natural openings offers patients a rapid recovery, minimal pain, and no scarring. Key to these surgical clinical trials is collaboration with medical device companies to develop new minimally-invasive tools.

Not that I could be a part of that particular surgery, being a guy and all that.  But a very interesting part of the story for me is the patient’s decision to allow release of her name.  Diana’s a grad student in UC San Diego’s Molecular Biophysics Training Program, a mouthful all its own; she says that “the surgery appealed to me because the work and study I do every day relates to science research and discovery.”  Okay, that’s one very cool student.