Generally, surgeons will give patients anesthetics to complete the operation when they are sleepy. But what Xiao Bian heard is that the patient is still awake and can speak during craniotomy. What's the matter? Why is there such a reaction?
Yesterday was the day when 29 year old Li run (pseudonym) underwent craniotomy. On the night of March 23, Li run suddenly fainted without any omen at work, and his hands and feet twitched.
After being sent to the hospital, the doctor diagnosed that there was a tumor on his head. The attending doctor believed that although the patient had fewer attacks at present, the frequency of attacks in the future would be gradually frequent. Drugs can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause. If surgery is not done, the tumor will spread to other places and may lead to paralysis.
After a series of discussions and preparations, Li run finally confirmed that craniotomy would be performed on April 17.
Men's craniotomy suddenly wake up, can chat with doctors, feel no pain
'come on, wake up. 'the surgeon told Li run to wake up. At this time, the operation is still in progress, Li run's skull has been cut by a scalpel, exposing the brain.
Li run is lying on the operating bed, making a series of actions according to the doctor's instructions: blinking, opening mouth, counting & hellip; & hellip; several doctors are using surgical tools to remove the tumor from Li run's brain.
The operation is in progress
When Li run was awakened during the operation, he said that his face itched and his ribs itched. He asked the doctor to scratch him. But Li run didn't feel any pain at the site of the operation.
Patients awakened during craniotomy in operating room: talking with doctors, reading pictures
Anesthesiologists tell us that during the operation, they will block the nerves in the patient's brain. The anesthetics used can not only ensure the patient's consciousness, but also make the patient not feel the pain caused by the operation.
'intraoperative arousal'
The biggest advantage of this type of surgery, known as "awake craniotomy", is that it can find the pathogen more accurately without damaging other functional areas of the brain.
In the past, most of the traditional brain tumor resection operations related to brain functional areas used total anesthesia. Even if the tumor is successfully removed, it may cause speech or motor dysfunction.
Chief surgeon Dai Xuejun: why should intraoperative awakening be used
"Conscious craniotomy" has greatly avoided this situation. During the operation, the chief surgeon uses weak current to stimulate the boundary between the tumor and normal brain tissue. If the electrode is stimulated to other functional areas, Li run's behavior will stop during the operation: when the electrode is stimulated to the normal language functional area, Li run will stop speaking; when the electrode is stimulated to the motor area, Li run's fingers will stop moving.
Dai Xuejun, the chief surgeon of the operation, told us that he had done dozens of similar operations before.
"If you cut more, there will be complications, but if you cut less, there may be recurrence," said Dai Xuejun. In brain regions with numerous blood vessels and complex functional areas, it is very difficult to remove tumors.
Discussion between chief surgeon and relevant experts in live broadcast
The operation ended smoothly, the tumor was removed, and the limb function was not affected.
At 5:30 p.m., Dai Xuejun's ward round showed that Li run's limb activities were normal, his physical strength returned to the preoperative level, and his thinking was clear and his speech was fluent.