MAN PLAYING GUITAR WHILE GETTING BRAIN SURGERY

Nolen was a passionate guitarist who was beginning to have symptoms from a tumor on his right frontal lobe.

 

Ten days after he was diagnosed with the tumor, the surgery was set to take place, and Nolen was taken aback when the surgeons asked if he would be ready to stay awake and perform the guitar during the process.

 

Ricardo Komotar, MD, director of the brain tumor program at Sylvester explained the reason for doing such critical surgery while the patient remains conscious.

 

He said that when surgery has to be done on the part of the brain which controls the basic bodily functions we need the patient awake so that we can monitor him to avoid violating normal brain function.

 

If the patient is asleep during such surgeries, they cannot get any feedback until it’s too late.

 

“The surgeries become much more dangerous because you can take out a tumor that involves normal brain function and cause real harm without knowing it,” he said.

 

They knew the understanding between a guitarist and his guitar and so there was no better way to do the surgery.

 

The procedure For His Brain Surgery is explained:

At the beginning of the craniotomy, Nolen was sedated but was then, awakened for the removal of the tumor which was a two-hour procedure. Once he was conscious of what was happening around him, the healthcare team gave him the guitar to play.

 

During the play, he was being monitored for hand movement.

 

“As we were finishing the case at the very back of the tumor, we noticed that his hand function started to decline,” said Komotar.

“tumor was touching and interfacing with the part of the brain that controls hand movement. Fortunately, we were able to remove the tumor and not injure his hand.”

Research and such cases have proven that procedures done with awake anesthesia are much better than deep anesthesia.

 

“Surgery with continuous neurological exam leads to better functional outcomes and fewer neurological deficits,” he said.

There are also improvements in discharge and recovery.

“The anesthesia you use during your procedure, the better the patient wakes up,” he said. “The faster they wake up, the sooner they are up and walking around, and the sooner they go home.”

 

 

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