Rock music was a key element to one fan’s recent brain surgery.
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Christian Nolen, a guitar player and Rock fan, was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor he quickly learned would require surgery to manage. The requested surgery took a fascinating turn for Nolen when doctors requested he be awake for a portion of it and play his guitar.
“I’d only really heard of procedures of that nature being done in shows and movies,” he expressed to Fox News. “I felt like it was such a unique experience that I couldn’t pass up — especially with my motor skills being on the line.”
Just as Christian mentioned, doctors believed the procedure — formally referred to as an awake craniotomy — would help them diagnose the tumor and remove as much of it as possible while also closely monitoring Nolen’s cognitive abilities.
“When a tumor is involving or near a critical part of the brain — something that controls the ability to speak or understand language or move — we want to do the surgery awake to continually monitor the patient, so you know if you start to violate normal brain functions,” Ricardo Komotar, M.D., director of the brain tumor program at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine shared.
Nolan was awakened for a two hour portion of the highly-intricate surgery. During that time, he was handed his guitar and asked to play. He resorted to riffs he’s been practicing most recently by Deftones and System of a Down.
“As we were finishing the case at the very back of the tumor, we noticed that his hand function started to decline,” Dr. Komotar explained. “The tumor was touching and interfacing with the part of the brain that controls hand movement. Fortunately, we were able to remove the entire tumor and not injure his hand.”
Check out clips of the procedure below.