Trachea emergency situation, and this is a cricothyrotomy. Tracheal agenesis, is a rare birth defect in which the trachea fails to develop. The defect is usually fatal though sometimes surgical intervention has been successful. A tracheoesophageal fistula is a congenital defect in which the trachea and esophagus are abnormally connected. Sometimes as an anatomical variation one or more of the tracheal rings are completely formed. These "O" rings are smaller than the normal C-shaped and can cause narrowing of the trachea resulting in breathing difficulties. An operation called a "slide tracheoplasty" can be performed which opens up the rings and rejoins
Traditional Chinese medicines derived from the human body Traditional Chinese medicines derived from the human body Li Shizhen's (1597) "Bencao gangmu", the classic materia medica of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), included 35 human drugs, including organs, bodily fluids, and excreta. Crude drugs derived from the human body were commonplace in the early history of medicine. Some of these TCM human drug usages are familiar from alternative medicine, such as medicinal breast milk and urine therapy. Others are uncommon, such as the "mellified man", which was a foreign nostrum allegedly prepared from the mummy of a holy man who only ate honey during his last days and whose corpse