Friday, November 08, 2013

A New Body Part


I found this fascinating article yesterday - Your Knee Bone’s Connected to Your…What? Scientists Discover New Body Part. The subtitle is, "You'd Think We'd Know Basic Anatomy by 2013."

It seems that two surgeons at University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium have located a new knee ligament which they have named the anterolateral ligament (or ALL).


Not all of us have an ALL ... only about 97%*, but its discovery evidently raises the possibility of new treatments for injuries to its better known brother, the anterior cruciate ligament (or ACL) - well known as a prime location for sports-related injuries. Injuries to the ligaments of the knee are commonly caused by rapid pivoting on a planted foot, as often happens with soccer and basketball players and politicians trying rapidly to adjust to the latest poll numbers.

You can read more of the gory scientific details here, but I think the real story is less medical and scientific than it is economic. Given the extraordinary cost of medical care in this country (with or without Obamacare or its non-existent GOP alternative), you can almost hear the ka-CHING!! of the money falling into the coffers of insurance companies and HMOs** as they figure out how much to charge for repairs to a new, as yet unexploited part of the body.

The fiscal possibilities are endless.

Have a good day. Take care of your knees. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* So ... not ALL have an ALL, only SOME have an ALL. I'm confused.

 ** Those are what we have nowadays instead of what we used to call "doctors."

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6 comments:

  1. eViL pOp TaRt6:57 AM

    Should we worry whether we have this part, or not?

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  2. The Mistress of the Dark7:35 AM

    That just looks yucky

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  3. Bilbo9:27 AM

    Angel, as long as you have the parts that a young lady normally ought to have, I wouldn't worry.

    Andrea - I agree. All of our more yucky body parts look better when they stay on the inside where they're supposed to be.

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  4. Mike10:54 AM

    From the insurance company... 'I'm sorry. There's no code for that body part. You'll have to wait for the next code book to come out before we can fix it.'

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  5. Insane Penguin1:29 PM

    Probably it willbe just the part that I break during this health care crisis.

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  6. Brandi5:35 PM

    I thought they pretty well learned all there was from anatomy 500 years ago.

    ReplyDelete