Indian musician played guitar during a 7-hour long brain surgery
The 32-year-olds surgery required him to play the guitar throughout to ascertain problem area
(Web Desk) – A 32 year old from Bangalore, India, a tech savvy-turned-musician played his guitar while lying on the operation table as surgeons performed a 7-hour long surgery on him.
According to The Times of India, the surgery was performed to cure the patient’s neurological disorder, musician’s dystonia, and a neurological movement disorder caused by the brain sending incorrect information to the muscles. The condition causes prolonged involuntary muscles contractions which causes some parts of the body to turn and twist into abnormal postures.
The guitarist kept on playing the instrument to help the surgeons detect the abnormal muscle contractions. Dr Sanjiv C C, a senior neurologist from University of British Columbia said, “This problem occurred when he tried to play the instrument and real-time feedback was important for us to ascertain the exact location of the target to be repaired.”
Dr Sharan Srinivasan, a stereotactic and functional neurosurgeon at Jain Institute of Movement Disorders and Stereotactic Neurosurgery, said: "This is a surgery where the part of the brain triggering abnormal tremors is destroyed by burning. Before the surgery, a special frame was fixed to his head with four screws going deep into the skull following which an MRI was conducted." These MRI images showed three coordinates of the target area in the brain (8-9cm deep, in this case) along with the entry point to the skull and the path to be followed during surgery.
"Based on these coordinates, a 14mm hole was drilled into the skull under local anaesthesia and a specialized electrode was passed into the brain following which it was stimulated to confirm the right location and prevent complications," he said.
The TOI report claimed that the man is now cured. "I was amazed to see my fingers improve magically on the operation table itself. By the end of the surgery, my fingers were 100% cured and I could move them like before. Within three days of surgery, I walked out of the hospital all set to play guitar again," he said.
