Bengaluru man strums guitar during brain surgery

The young musician developed Dystonia, a neurological movement disorder.

In the first ever Live Brain Circuit Surgery performed in India, doctors operated on a musician as he strummed his guitar. Surgeons carefully burnt parts of his brain to relieve the young musician of a neurological movement disorder that cramped fingers on his left hand.

Doctors from Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain hospital and consultant surgeons operated on a 32-year-old musician to get rid of Musician's Dystonia. The condition is caused by the brain sending incorrect information to muscles. It results in cramping of body parts, in this case, the musician's left-hand fingers were cramped making it impossible for him to play the guitar. The surgery was conducted to burn parts of his brain that triggered the abnormal tremors in his muscles.

A 32-year-old techie-turned-musician strummed the guitar on the operation table while surgeons "burned" his brain to correct a neurological disorder. The seven-hour surgery at a city hospital last week relieved the youth of musician's dystonia, a condition that cramped three fingers on his left hand.

While the guitar strumming patient made the surgery seem like a cakewalk, extreme precision and caution were required. A special frame was fixed to the patient's head with screwed drilled into the skull. An MRI scan helped doctors zero in on the problem area. "In this case, the target area was about 8-9 cms deep in the brain. We then had coordinates of the entry point to the skull and the path through which we had to reach the target area," said Dr Sharan Srinivasan, HOD of Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital.

Surgeons drilled a 14 mm hole into the skull of the patient after which a specialised electrode was passed into the brain. Doctors then stimulated it to confirm the target area.
"We had to have him play the guitar because the problem occurred whenever he tried to play. Real-time feedback was needed to locate the target area," said Dr Sanjiv CC, a specialist in Movement disorder and Parkinson Disease.

On Thursday, the musician who is now fully recovered performed before an audience including the members of the media. By the end of the surgery, his cramped fingers were no longer an issue.

OneIndia News