Medical science is amazing. Surgery is amazing. Whether its swapping organs, changing faces or repairing damaged limbs, surgery is impressive. If you’ve never marvelled at the awe of surgery, now is your chance to do so, because this here is a list of five marvellous surgical procedures.

Jesus Christ gave eyesight to a blind man by rubbing spittle into the blind man’s eyes. That was impressive, but it hasn’t worked in more than 2,000 years. What has worked however is Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis, also known as tooth in eye surgery.

Tooth in eye was first pioneered by an Italian surgeon in the early 1960’s. It involves extracting a unit made up of a tooth and its surrounding bone and ligaments. The tooth-bone structure is then reconstructed with a plastic tube and placed into the patients cheek where it starts to grow a new blood supply. After about 4 months the tooth-bone-plastic tube structure is then removed from the cheek and placed into the eye. Once implanted into the eye, light can pass through the plastic tube allowing the blind patient to see again. From thereon the patient literally sees the world through a tooth in his/her eye.

Although this device might look like plumbing apparatus, its not used for sinks or toilets. Its used for a different kind of plumbing.

The device is one of inflatable penile implants, and its installed into a man’s penis via penile prosthesis surgery.

Sexual dysfunction affects a lot of men, and when severe impotence does not respond to any other intervention, penile implants can save the day.

During penile prosthesis surgery the scrotum is cut open. From there the tubes are pushed up into the penis; one on either side. The ball is then placed into the scrotum and a reservoir of fluid is placed into the abdomen. The incisions are then sealed.

Following surgery the patient may have a rock hard erection whenever wherever and for however long he wants. By squeezing the scrotum the pump sends fluid from the reservoir into the two penile tubes causing them to inflate and expand, stretching the penis to full capacity. Sensitivity is not effected and sexual function is restored. Penile implants effectively are a remote controlled boner with endless battery life.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, its a penis growing on a man’s arm!

Every year there are a small minority of men that lose their penis due to injury or disease. Also sex change operations are now common. Phalloplasty is the surgical procedure of constructing or remodelling a penis.

Phalloplasty often involves taking a flap of skin from the arm and using it to build a penis. In some cases a penis can be grown on a patient’s arm before being transplanted to the groin. Veins can be removed from the leg and transplanted into a newly formed penis structure.

Phalloplasty is a very complex process with high risk of complications. It is usually carried out bit by bit via numerous surgeries.

A range of different surgical procedures can be carried out on an unborn fetus.

Operating on an unborn fetus can involve opening the uterus and performing surgery while the fetus is left exposed within the uterus.

Surgical procedures can be carried out on fetuses as young as 16 weeks, however the ideal prenatal age for surgery is 22 – 26 weeks.

Prenatal surgery can treat a range of dysfunctions including spina bifida, lung malformations and urinary tract obstruction.

It hasn’t been done just yet, but there is speculation that the world’s first human head transplant will happen by 2030.

Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has been planning it for many years. Head transplant surgery aims to remove one’s head from a dysfunctional body and transplant it onto the corpse of a fully functional body.

Otherwise referred to as a full body transplant, the idea has sparked controversy and criticism. Numerous complications are difficult to overcome.

The severed head would need to be kept “alive” after decapitation. The surgery would need to be completed within one hour for any chance of success. Fusing the spinal cords would be immensely difficult, although some medical experts are now suggesting that a full spinal cord can be transplanted along with a head.

Autoimmune system complications could be fatal, and trialling experiments on animals is hard to approve due to cruelty and ethical standards. However head transplant experiments have already been conducted on mice, dogs and monkeys. The experiments demonstrated complications including full body paralysis and death within days of surgery.

Head transplant surgery is freaky. It takes us one step closer to immortality, and it begs the question; whose sperm/eggs will be dominant in successful patients? If a black man has his head transplanted onto a white man’s body, and then bears offspring, will his children be black or white? It adds a new level of spice to the term “spitting image.” Could you be the spitting image of your dead decapitated surrogate father?