MetaFilter posts tagged with brainsurgery

I'm in ur head fixing ur brain

mandal — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:05:53 -0800

Bluegrass banjo player Eddie Adcock underwent brain surgery while awake and playing the banjo. The BBC has video of the operation (poss. NSFW or the squeamish; audio here). The operation was to fix tremors in Adcock's hand, the banjo playing was feedback. The BBC carried a story a few years ago on awake brain surgery when it was more uncommon; this woman has had two such operations. You can even find an online preparation guide for it. From an article about the procedure on Ted Kennedy:

"It is just mind-blowing," said Dr. David Korones, associate professor of pediatrics, oncology and neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y. "You walk into the operating room and see on one side of a sheet a person's brain exposed — it looks just like it does in the movies … and walk around on the other side and you can talk to the person."

(I'm sure he chose the phrase "mind-blowing" carefully.) If it's still not weird enough for you, Conor Mather-Licht read Vonnegut aloud while undergoing "awake craniotomy with mapping" (again with the possibly NSFW/NSFTS thing).

MIT researchers play Borg God

rob511 — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 02:36:30 -0800

New hope for blind hamsters. According to the Guardian, scientists at MIT have repaired brain damage and restored eyesight to rodents using nanotechnology. In the study, minute particles were injected into damaged parts of the brain, and subsequently arranged themselves into a "scaffold" gel throughout the damaged area. The scaffold allowed severed nerves to regrow and form new connections. 75% of test animals' injuries were improved with the new technique. (The article did not note if the test subjects offered any resistance to the therapeutic measures.)

zeoslap — Mon, 26 Feb 2001 14:07:48 -0800

Ow my head hurts Doctors operate on the wrong part of a mans brain because the CT scan is placed backwards on the viewing screen. Doh!