He plays the saxophone while a brain tumor is removed.
It happened on Monday at the Paideia International Hospital in Rome.
The surgery was carried out by the team led by Christian Brogna, a neurosurgeon expert in complex tumor surgery and 'awake surgey', who already a few years ago, in London, had performed a similar operation while the patient was playing the violin.
The operation lasted nine hours while the patient, aged 35, was awake and playing the saxophone.
The neoplasm was completely removed without compromising neurological functions and the patient was discharged this morning.
"It was a very complex surgery on a young patient with a tumor in a very complex area of the brain that would once have been classified as inoperable," says Christian Brogna at the
HANDLE.
"He was also a left-handed saxophonist and this complicates the brain structure a lot."
The choice to intervene on a patient awake while playing a musical instrument is linked to two strictly connected reasons, explains the neurosurgeon: "An intervention of this type is prepared by knowing the patient deeply and he had expressed the desire to want to preserve the ability to playing after the operation. Playing music during the surgery also allows us to test a myriad of brain functions and neural networks. While playing - continues Brogna - a person moves his hands in a coordinated way, he counts to keep time , interacts with the eyes with the rest of the team, has prosody because music is a language, he remembers. An intervention of this type is like a real orchestra in which, at the center, the soloist is the patient and each member of theorchestra - the medical team - does its part in which it is highly specialized ".
The intervention was performed by 10 specialists, some recruited specifically for their specific skills: "I asked for, for example, the presence of a neurophysiologist with whom I worked in London because I know her very high skills in this field", says Brogna again. .
The patient is currently well, is awaiting the definitive response of the histological examination and will be followed up over time with periodic checks.
The scar, less than 10 cm, will not be visible because it is in an area covered by the hair.
"Beyond the result in terms of removal of the tumor mass, which has been fully achieved, I care that the patient, after the operation, is exactly as before, that nothing of his personality changes. highly complex surgery makes it possible to achieve this result ".