Young man had ‘awake’ surgery to remove brain tumor and answered questions during surgery

2024-01-10 05:00:00

A 15-year-old teenager was awake surgery to remove brain tumor at the “Blas Dubarry” provincial public hospital, belonging to the Buenos Aires town of Mercedes. The procedure was carried out by opening the patient’s skull and then testing functions such as language, understanding and vision in the operating room.

The Buenos Aires Ministry of Health reported this Tuesday in a statement that the teenager from Roque Pérez became the first pediatric patient in the province of Buenos Aires to undergo this complex technique.

The neurosurgeon Juan Marelliwho was in charge of the intervention, explained that “the procedure is complex and requires a prior psychological evaluation and preparation of the patient that consists of knowing all the members of the team and the step by step of the surgery.”

“The person does not have to be very anxious and must be mentally prepared to face this operation”the doctor explained.

Photo: X/@drjuanmarelli

The particularity of this intervention, known as “Awake Surgery”consists of keeping the patient awake during surgery so that he can make movements and talk to the doctors in order to check that the resection of the tumor does not harm any of the functions of the involved hemisphere.

The young man had been diagnosed with a tumor in the left hemisphere of the brain. First, a craniotomy was performed, with complete anesthesia, and then he was woken up to continue the operation.

“We need to verify that the resection of the tumor is not going to harm any of the functions of the left hemisphere of the brain and, for that, we need to stimulate the entire resection area with electrodes (small electrical discharges) and be in dialogue with the person to monitor brain functions,” explained the neurosurgeon.

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The 15-year-old patient answered questions during the operation

During the second part of the intervention The adolescent was asked if he felt pain and there was also a intraoperative language monitoring, which includes speaking and understanding; at the same time that vision and sensitivity were evaluated.

After a series of questions and exercises such as numerical counting, days of the week, months and other key questions, The tumor was resected without risk of sequelae..

“Fortunately everything went very well, we resected the entire tumor and it helped a lot that the patient was a very calm boy, who prepared a lot and he remained calm throughout the surgery“concluded the professional who conducted the surgery.

The agency Telam reported that doctors Walter Crema, Guido Antonelli, Mariano Teyssadier, Julia Lembo, neurophysiology specialist Darío Savini, anesthesiologist Marina Siri, instrument technician Rebeca Scorzo and nursing graduate Pamela Granussi also participated in the intervention.

CA/ED

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