Removal of ribs for aesthetic purposes?

[Danniel]

Does it really exist? In the Snopes site it is said that it didn't existed in Victorian times, and that most/all of the celebrities which are said to have done this surgery haven't done.

But there's someone who seems to be real life's Nick Riviera if you search for that.... but the pictures in the site are so horrendous that it makes me think if that wouldn't be a hoax or some sort of parody in order to criticize some people's desperate willingness to change their bodies at any cost.

Also, the idea of the surgery istelf seems unlikely to me, even tough I'm not very familiar with surgeries and such things. To me seems that there are too many muscles and tissues and things around to the surgery actually be possible (such as the diaphragm; it is attached to the lower ribs... how would someone have it moved to the next upper ones, and rest only one night at the hospital?)

I would be a bit less skeptical if the surgery was to cut some slices of the ribs, decreasing its circumference, more or less the opposite of what some people (at least one girl) did to increase the leg lenght.... just seems more feasible, but that is not what is described in the site or anywhere else, as far as I know.

[drkitten]

Also, the idea of the surgery istelf seems unlikely to me, even tough I'm not very familiar with surgeries and such things. To me seems that there are too many muscles and tissues and things around to the surgery actually be possible (such as the diaphragm; it is attached to the lower ribs... how would someone have it moved to the next upper ones, and rest only one night at the hospital?)

Nothing's attached to the "floating" ribs (the lowermost) which are the ones that would be removed.

[l0rca]

Search for what? Some URLs please? I want to see damn you.

[Danniel]

The diaphragma and some back muscles, perhaps other tissues, are attached, even to the floating ribs.

- Image of the diaphragm (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/images/ency/fullsize/19072.jpg)

- Image from Gray's anatomy of the tangled net of muscles of the back (http://www.bartleby.com/107/115.html) - Note that these are only two layers of the deeper muscles, there are also other layers of more external muscles. (http://www.bartleby.com/107/121.html)

"Floating", I think is a sort of misnomer to refer to the last pair of ribs that do not make the whole turn around the body until attaching to the sternum, not that they're actually floating.

I think that these are more likely possibly removable, anyway. However, seems that the removal of these ribs would have little or no effect for making a more hourglass-like silhouette, since the remaining closest ribs right up overlap, as they are wider and also inclined downward.

Ribcage images from Gray's anatomy online (http://www.bartleby.com/107/26.html)

[Loss Leader]

I cannot imagine any circumstance under which any doctor would ever remove a rib for cosmetic purposes.

[ponderingturtle]

I cannot imagine any circumstance under which any doctor would ever remove a rib for cosmetic purposes.

I can, the money is good enough. You can always find someone willing to violate basic ethics for money.

[Danniel]

I'm less skeptical after I watched an interview with a doctor who allegedly makes such surgeries; in fact, is not the whole rib that is removed from the connection with the vertebra, but it is cut smaller.

Here's a link to the video, not of an actual procedure, thanks Flying Spaghetti Monster, but only the description of it:

http://surgeries.cc/surgeries/ribs/stone3svideo.htm


Other thing I've found:


surgeons for removal of the lower floating rib

Dr. Alexander Sinclair, BH, CA

Dr. Aaron Stone Los Angeles, CA

more shortly

please understand that plastic surgeons do not like to advertise this procedure, thus the listings are not fully confirmed at this time.

http://www.extrememakeover.net/extreme/extremeribsurg.html




That's creepy anyway.

[andyandy]

wasn't Prince supposed to have had a rib removed so he could, ahem, pleasure himself orally?

Or was that just a salacious school-ground rumour? :)

[Zygar]

wasn't Prince supposed to have had a rib removed so he could, ahem, pleasure himself orally?

Or was that just a salacious school-ground rumour? :)

I heard it alternately about Marilyn Manson and Maynard James Keenan from Tool. Yes, just a story to make people sound a little more debaucherous.

[Hamradioguy]

I cannot imagine any circumstance under which any doctor would ever remove a rib for cosmetic purposes.

I know Kathie Jung who is listed in Guinesses' as having the smallest waist in the world- somewhere around 15 or 16 inches. Since her husband, Bob, is an orthopedic surgeon there have been claims that Bob...or someone....surgically removed her lower ribs. They both have told me, "not true" and Kathie's X-rays would seem to confirm that she indeed has all her ribs. Bob agrees with Loss Leader's quote, but there are plenty of surgeons and no doubt some might not be so ethical. If your interest is simply a tiny waist, then clearly rib removal isn't necessary.

[bjb]

Rib removal is not even necessary. A corset is an accepted method of maintaining and even creating a narrow waist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corset#Waist_reduction

[kmortis]

I don't doubt that it does occur. I mean, there are people who willingly have perfectly healthy limb amputated and other that cut holes in their own skulls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trepanning).

[ponderingturtle]

I don't doubt that it does occur. I mean, there are people who willingly have perfectly healthy limb amputated and other that cut holes in their own skulls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trepanning).

Can you think of a better way to open your third eye than self trepidation?

[kmortis]

Can you think of a better way to open your third eye than self trepidation?

Prying open my third eye..

:D

[Dave1001]

Does it really exist? In the Snopes site it is said that it didn't existed in Victorian times, and that most/all of the celebrities which are said to have done this surgery haven't done.

But there's someone who seems to be real life's Nick Riviera if you search for that.... but the pictures in the site are so horrendous that it makes me think if that wouldn't be a hoax or some sort of parody in order to criticize some people's desperate willingness to change their bodies at any cost.

Also, the idea of the surgery istelf seems unlikely to me, even tough I'm not very familiar with surgeries and such things. To me seems that there are too many muscles and tissues and things around to the surgery actually be possible (such as the diaphragm; it is attached to the lower ribs... how would someone have it moved to the next upper ones, and rest only one night at the hospital?)

I would be a bit less skeptical if the surgery was to cut some slices of the ribs, decreasing its circumference, more or less the opposite of what some people (at least one girl) did to increase the leg lenght.... just seems more feasible, but that is not what is described in the site or anywhere else, as far as I know.

Interesting. I had no idea that was an urban legend.

[Dave1001]

wasn't Prince supposed to have had a rib removed so he could, ahem, pleasure himself orally?

Or was that just a salacious school-ground rumour? :)

Watch the movie Shortbus and you'll see that's not necessary. Seeing is believing.