BENGALURU: In bizarre case, a 32 year old techie-turned-musician strummed a guitar as he lay on an operation table. The man who suffered from dystonia, a condition that had cramped three of his fingers on his left hand, underwent a seven-hour surgery at a hospital in Bengaluru. As doctors “burned” parts of his brain that triggered the abnormal tremors in his muscles, the man played the instrument to help them locate the troublesome areas.
Senior neurologist from the University of British Columbia, Dr Sanjiv CC said, “This problem occurred when he tried to play the instrument and real-time feedback was important for us to ascertain the exact location of the target to be repaired.” Dr Sharan Srinivasan, a stereotactic and functional neurosurgeon at Jain Institute of Movement Disorders and Stereotactic Neurosurgery, said, “This is a surgery where the part of the brain triggering abnormal tremors is destroyed by burning. Before the surgery, a special frame was fixed to his head with four screws going deep into the skull following which an MRI was conducted.” Images showed three coordinates of the target area in the brain.
“Based on these coordinates, a 14mm hole was drilled into the skull under local anaesthesia and a specialised electrode was passed into the brain following which it was stimulated to confirm the right location and prevent complications.” The patient is completely cured and walked out of the hospital within three days of surgery.
