Canadian researchers have pioneered a new way to mend a patient's breastbone after open-heart surgery, using a Superman-strength glue that cuts healing time and reduces pain.

The technique uses a state-of-the-art adhesive called Kryptonite that rapidly bonds to bone and accelerates the recovery process. 

"We can now heal the breastbone in hours instead of weeks after open-heart surgery, with patients making a full recovery and getting back to full physical activity within days instead of months."

(Continue reading story by Canadian Press)

Australian scientists are poised to begin a three-year trial on a revolutionary surgery to help cancer victims regrow their breasts.

The experimental stem cell breast-growing technique - called Neopec - could replace breast reconstructions and implants for cancer victims within years.

Scientists from the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery in Melbourne will implant fat cells, which will multiple rapidly within a biodegradable shell and be shaped into the breast she lost during cancer surgery.

The new technique has already been proved in pigs, which grew new breasts in just six weeks.

(Continue reading in the Herald Sun)

There can be few experiences more exciting than regaining one's sight after being blind. Kiriana Thackeray knows the feeling.

A young mother who went blind suddenly when her baby was just seven months old has had her sight restored by a Wellington surgeon in an operation believed to be a New Zealand first.

She had not seen stars in the sky since she was 17. And being reunited with her daughter, Te Amorangi, was "like seeing her for the first time."

(Continue reading Dominion Post story in Stuff.co.nz)