To check that his brain was not damaged, a surgeon asked his patient to stay awake during the operation for his brain tumor and to play the saxophone.
- In France, 3,500 new cases of brain tumor are diagnosed each year.
- Symptoms of a brain tumor are headache, loss of balance, difficulty concentrating, seizures and coordination disorder, etc.
- During his operation, the patient played a song from the 1970 film Love Story and the Italian national anthem.
It is an operation that could fascinate some or frighten others. In Rome, a team of surgeons operated on a man with a brain tumor, leaving him awake and even asking him to play the saxophone during the operation. The purpose of this approach was to test his neurological faculties in real time.
“Everyone’s brain is very different from everyone else’s”
The surgeons wanted to make sure that they did not affect essential functions and in particular his musical abilities that the patient, a saxophonist, wanted to preserve at all costs. Thus, during the operation, the practitioners regularly asked him to play his instrument. “The architectural complexity of the brain and its remarkable plasticity make everyone’s brain very different from that of others.”, details Dr. Christian Borgna, the neurologist who performed the operation, in a Press release.
As a reminder, a brain tumor is a cell growth in the brain, which can be benign or malignant, that is to say non-cancerous or cancerous, according to the MSD-Manual. If a brain tumor is suspected, doctors ask the patient to undergo imaging tests and a biopsy. If the diagnosis is confirmed, treatment may consist of surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or a combination of these treatments.
“Aware surgery” preserves “the patient’s quality of life”
In all, ten healthcare professionals worked for nine hours on this surgery. “Every brain is unique, just like every person, continues Dr. Christian Borgna. Awake neurosurgery makes it possible to map with extreme precision, during the operation, the neural networks that underlie the various brain functions such as playing, speaking, moving, remembering, counting. The goal of awake surgery is to remove the brain tumor or vascular malformation such as cavernomas located in specific areas of the brain, preserving the patient’s quality of life”.
Today, the patient is doing well and has very fond memories of his operation. “Each awake surgery not only allows us to achieve the best result in terms of eliminating pathology, but is a real breakthrough, says Dr. Christian Borgna. It offers us each time a window on the functioning of this fascinating but still in many respects mysterious organ that is the brain.”.
