Cool. I'm not sure what specific advantages zero-g surgery provides, but a team of French doctors just performed the first surgery (cyst removal) done in near zero-gravity:[/p] [blockquote](//image/450FRANCE_WEIGHTLESS_SURGERY_X.jpg)
The five-man medical team made history by slicing off the patient's yellow growth, which then floated away, tied to a string. Doctors worked in intervals of 22 seconds during conditions of weightlessness. Coincidentally, it took 22 intervals to complete the surgery.
Three surgeons, two anesthetists and a cameraman were strapped to the walls as the aircraft dipped and soared in roller coaster-like parabolas to achieve intervals of weightlessness.
The operation, more than three years in the making and part of a three-phase exploration of weightless surgery, paves the way toward one day performing surgery in space via a surgeon or a remote-controlled robot. It also is an experiment that may one day be instructive for a future medical emergency on the International Space Station.
[/blockquote][a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/286730_surgery28.html"]Link[/a][/p][hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"]The only way I know of to get a zero-g environment (aside from being in space) is to ride a plane like the "[a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomit_Comet"]Vomit Comet[/a]" and do parabolic manuevers. I would think this must have been hell on the patient as well as the doctors (and the article appears to confirm that).
[font size="1"]Disclaimer: I wasn't paid to post this.[/font]
Ah, an advance that is alas too late for Lise