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What It’s Like Having Brain Surgery While You’re Still Awake

Imagine waking up from a heavy sleep with the top half of your skull missing. You’re in an operating theatre, surrounded by nurses and doctors busily organising sharp instruments on trays. These people are asking you questions about your life as if everything is totally normal. You feel very little pain and can both speak and think. Soon, part of your brain will be removed and, temporarily, the words you can still hear will make absolutely no sense.

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 An Open Mind

In August, the novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard traveled to Albania to observe an awake craniotomy, the surgical procedure by which brain tumors are removed from conscious patients.

 Virtual Reality-Assisted Awake Craniotomy: A Retrospective Study

Awake craniotomy (AC) with brain mapping by direct electrical stimulation for tumors within or adjacent to eloquent brain regions is a surgical approach for minimizing the risk of postoperative neurologic deficits and preserving the patient’s health-related quality of life. Language and motor functions are frequently mapped, but mapping is less frequent for more complex functions, such as visuospatial and social cognition, despite the importance of these functions for daily life activities.

Articles of Interest

A 19-year-old Sang During Brain Surgery so Doctors Could Preserve Her Musical Talent

According to Seattle Children’s, the procedure is often done to preserve cognitive functions, but the hospital had never previously done such a surgery to preserve musical ability. Kira was put to sleep for the initial portion of the surgery and then woken up when Dr. Hauptman was ready to remove the tumor. During the procedure, Kira completed various musical tasks that allowed Dr. Hauptman to map and steer clear of the areas of her brain being used.

Awake craniotomy A patient’s perspective

Awake craniotomy for surgical resection of brain tumors was well tolerated by patients. Most patients reported that they do not recall feeling pain during the operation. However, we feel that further work and exploration are needed in order to achieve better control of pain and discomfort during these types of operations.

Awake craniotomy for brain tumors: 8 questions

Imagine being able to talk to your doctors during brain tumor surgery without pain and give them immediate feedback while they operate. That’s exactly what happens during an awake craniotomy.

Awake craniotomy in neurosurgery: Shall we do it more often?

Awake craniotomy is beneficial in a variety of supratentorial brain lesions provided the patient comfort is not compromised. Awake craniotomy in suitable patients, will reduce the possible anaesthetic complications associated with general anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation and need for post-operative intensive care unit admission.

Guitarist Has Brain Surgery, and Strums All the Way Through

The surgery is not unusual. The first craniotomies date to prehistoric times, with fossil records showing that patients had holes drilled in their skulls — and survived — as early as 8,000 years ago. In the 1930s, the Canadian-American neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield pioneered modern craniotomies, which he used to treat epilepsy.

Inside the Operating Room for Awake Brain Surgery

Max Aguilera-Hellweg has been fascinated by the human body since he first set foot inside an operating room while on assignment in the late 1980s. He likened the experience to "finding himself in the middle of a stage with the president inside the space shuttle. It was like going to the moon." In short: amazing.

The Evolution of Awake Brain Surgery

Awake craniotomy is a surgical technique performed in patients with brain tumors in or near critical brain areas such as motor or speech cortex, called the eloquent cortex. This technique is most frequently used in the removal of brain tumors such as gliomas and metastatic brain tumors. During this kind of surgery, patients receive standard “asleep-awake-asleep” anesthesia, where they are sedated for the first part of the procedure. The neurosurgeon makes a small aperture in the patient’s skull and at the critical phase of tumor removal, the patient is gently awakened and the brain areas around the tumor are electrically stimulated.

The Terrible Beauty of Brain Surgery

A witness in an operating room where the patients are conscious. Marsh was in Tirana to demonstrate a surgical procedure he helped pioneer, called awake craniotomy, that had never been performed in Albania. The procedure is used to remove a kind of brain tumor that looks just like the brain itself. Such tumors are most common in young people, and there is no cure for them.

Watch This Nine-Year-Old Girl Play Piano During Her Brain Surgery

The young girl, whose family only shared her first name, was suffering from a brain tumour that caused her epileptic attacks. However, due to complications, the doctors realised it would be too risky to make her unconscious during the surgery as it could damage her nerves. To cope with the surgery while fully conscious, Saumya played the piano.

What is awake craniotomy?

The technique, which has been around for years as an epilepsy treatment, is rare and only used when a certain type of tumour lies close to specialised areas of the brain that control movement or speech.

Why This Doctor Is Performing Brain Surgery on Live TV

Greg Grindley will tell surgeons how he feels as they carefully thread electrodes deep into his brain this weekend, attempting to reverse symptoms of his Parkinson's, a disease that freezes his face and sets his hands trembling. The 49-year-old Ohio electrician will be awake for the surgery, known as deep brain stimulation, and his reactions will help guide lead surgeon Jonathan Miller in placing the four electrodes. While Grindley answers questions from the medical team, doctors will answer questions from viewers watching the procedure on live television.