Weightless medical Op Breaks Final Frontier

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Source: Yahoo

Weightless Op Breaks Final Frontier Wednesday
September 27, 01:05 PM

A team of French doctors have attempted the world's first operation in zero-gravity using a specially modified plane. Organisers hope the trial is the first step to performing surgery in space. The doctors - who were strapped to the sides of the plane - operated to remove a benign tumour from the arm of a volunteer, who was held inside a plastic tent.

During the flight, the pilot of the specially designed Airbus A300 Zero-G, performed manoeuvres to create weightlessness.

Both the patient and the medical team were trained to cope with zero-gravity in machines similar to those used by astronauts.

"Since February we have been rehearsing this operation on the ground and in the plane," said chief surgeon Dominique Martin.

"It is all crystal clear in our heads."

The three-hour flight took place above south-west France.

Earlier this year a test operation was carried out to repair an artery in a rat's tail.