This Patient Is Having Brain Surgery....Or.....Is He Checking His E-Mail?

The patient on the operating table is having brain surgery. As currently, he has become bored; he is also checking his e-mail. A picture out of sci-fi? No, not at all. Many craniotomy’s (brain surgery) are now performed while the patient is awake. It is preferred that the patient is awake.

In the above scenario, the patient had a glioblastoma (deadly cancerous tumor in brain). As the patient was awake, the surgeon could keep cutting out the tumor without damaging critical brain mass.

The surgeon explains the surgery this way: it’s like you pour red paint in the brain. The bigger globs of red paint are easy to excise (or cut out). However, the red paint gradually starts to intermingle with the brain, becoming dark pink, then pink, then only tinged with pink. The red paint represents the tumor. As the tumor starts to become pink, it is intermingling with vital brain cells.

When the patient is awake and talking to the surgeon, the surgeon will know via the patient’s response to his questions, if he is getting close to vital brain tissue. By knowing this, more of the tumor can be eliminated. In this case, 95% of the tumor was excised.

As the brain has no pain sensors, the only pain is when the scalp is cut. Light anesthesia is given at that point, then the patient is allowed to wake up.

As deep anesthesia is not given, the patient is allowed to be discharged early from the hospital. In the example given, the patient went home the next day.

Now for the million dollar question: Did the patient really check his e-mail? Sort of. The technician who was sitting by the table asking the questions and noticing responses was checking his e-mail. The patient, noticing the computer, asked the technician to check his e-mail too.