Surgery Facts

Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button.

The human brain is insensitive to pain.

Surgeons who listen to music during operations perform better than those who don't .

In 1961, the only surgeon in the Soviet Antarctic Expedition, Leonid Rogozov, removed his own inflamed appendix under local anesthesia.

Catgut comes from sheep not cats.

When Andre the Giant needed back surgery, doctors couldn't figure out how much anesthesia to use. Standard formulas didn't account for his gigantism and extraordinary alcohol tolerance. Andre told them: "It usually takes two liters of vodka just to make me feel warm inside." They used that as a reference point.

A 22-year-old Chinese man needed a new nose after losing his original in a traffic accident. Instead of a traditional transplant, surgeons grew a replacement nose on his forehead using cartilage from his ribs.