I have had diabetes my entire life, and I am very thankful for the fact that modern medical discoveries have helped me live a happy, healthy life despite my disease. I have had to watch what I eat and take medications daily for most of my life, and while i used to feel like I was "missing out" when other children were able to eat sugary candy and I wasn't, I eventually learned that sugar-free candy tastes great. I am always keeping up on the latest diabetes research, and while researching, I have also learned about many other diseases and ailments and how they are treated and controlled. I know others are too busy to browse a bunch of medical websites, like I like to do, so I decided to start a blog that others can visit that contains information on a variety of medical topics all in one place!
Modern Medicine Saves Lives Every Day
Why Some Patients Are Singing To Their Surgeons During Brain Cancer Surgery
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Patients are having too much fun during their brain cancer surgeries, and it's creeping doctors out a little bit. Don't you imagine for a minute that doctors will put an end to patients' operating room shenanigans, though.
Here's why patients who sing, play guitar, and chat with their surgeons during operations are actually helping their doctors out.
Being awake for part of their surgeries helps with brain mapping.
Cancer surgeons have refined their knowledge about the function and importance of the various areas of our brains. They know, for example, that if they must remove a cancerous tumor from the left hemisphere of the brain, they may unwittingly damage the speech area of the brain.
That's why they often bring a patient quickly awake after their skull is opened. They probe the brain and listen to the changes in the patient's speech patterns to be certain they won't damage vital tissue when removing cancerous growths. Patients awakened during brain surgery are not only tested on their speech and language recognition, but on fine motor skills and memory as well.
Each patient who answers questions and carries on small talk with their surgeon helps add to the body of knowledge about how our brains work and how they can be kept intact during surgery.
Awakened brain surgery helps the doctor save your important skills.
If you sing opera or play guitar, and those skills are important to you, your doctor may want you to play your guitar during your brain tumor-removal surgery, as this man did in an operating room in Brazil.
If you stumble on song lyrics as your surgeon probes a certain area of your brain, that tells the doctor to be extra careful around that specific brain matter. Likewise, if you tremble, lose your rhythm, or forget the chords, the surgeon will be aware of where your fine motor skills or memory areas are located.
The combination of highly-refined anesthesia dosages and advanced brain mapping mean you stay comfortable while your surgeon gets real-time feedback on how best to protect your brain during the tumor removal procedure.
Once the surgeon knows the spots to avoid, the patient is put back to sleep. The tumor is surgically extracted and the patient's head is sutured and bandaged. Swelling may affect speech and other abilities for a week or so after removal of a brain tumor, but this will subside along with the swelling as the patient heals.
To learn more about other types of cancer surgery, contact a center like Countryside Dermatology & Laser Center.
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