Doctors perform rare surgery with patient remaining awake

Kolkata, Jun 19: Doctors at a private hospital in Kolkata have performed a rare brain surgery where a patient remains awake during the operation.





Dr Amitabha Chanda, neurosurgeon at a city-based private hospital, had the operation of 18-year-old student Moubani Karmakar, who had a tumour located on the motor area on the left side of the brain.

Dr Chanda said, “She would become paralytic on her right side if the operation was done in a conventional manner. So I had to opt for a unique method where the surgery was done by neuro-navigation.”

“Awake craniotomy is done rarely as all patients cannot be cooperative enough with the doctors and patient's cooperation along with great coordination between the anesthesia team and surgeons are of utmost importance for this kind of surgeries,” Dr Chanda told reporters here today.

The procedure involves brain surgery while keeping the patient awake thus reducing chances of post-operative paralysis and other complications, he said.

“This is a preferred technique for operations to remove lesions close to, or involving, functionally important regions of the brain, like area responsible for speech, for movement of limbs,” the surgeon said.

The tumor was removed in about four hours, without affecting right side of her body or speech, doctors said.