Shocking: Florida man with brain tumor plays guitar during surgery

You have probably already heard about surgeries in which the patient remains awake with the intention of being able to measure their response to the intervention. While that's already surprising, the neurological team at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Florida went a step further, and made a man play guitar while he was undergoing surgery for a brain tumor.

Christian Nolen is a guitarist who, on the recommendation of doctors, had to play his instrument during his surgery in order to evaluate and protect his manual dexterity through a technique that was as aggressive as possible with the tumor but without affecting its performance.

Regarding the experience, the patient who He had a tumor in the right frontal lobe of his brain. and it was starting to cause complications, he shared to Fox News Digital: “I had only heard of procedures of that nature performed in shows and movies. I felt like it was a unique experience that I couldn't pass up, especially since my motor skills were at stake.”

For his part, Doctor Ricardo Komotar, director of the brain tumor program at the health center, shared with the media that Christian already had problems on the left side of his body, particularly in his left hand.affecting his ability to play the guitar.

Given the situation, the specialists decided to take him to surgery to confirm the diagnosis, determine the type of tumor the guitarist had and be able to remove as much of it as possible. So They asked him if he would be willing to stay awake and play his instrument during the procedure.

The reason for this, the doctor explained, is that when a tumor affects or is near a critical part of the brain, for example the one that controls the ability to speak, understand language or move, Performing surgery in this way allows you to monitor the patient's response at all times and know if any brain function is being affected.

The guitarist underwent surgery for a brain tumor while playing

As complicated as the idea of undergo major surgery while awake, Christian shared that the risk of being sedated during the entire procedure meant greater fear and anxiety than playing guitar at the time.

It also helped that the members of the surgical team explained in depth what to expect. Anesthesia was needed to put him to sleep at the beginning of the surgery, but Once the doctors were in the most delicate part of the procedure, they woke him up and brought him a guitar to play.

The doctor shared that there was indeed a moment of danger, since once they were finishing they noticed that the function of their hand began to decrease. This occurred because the tumor was interacting with the part of the brain that controls limb movement. Despite this scare, the surgery was ultimately a success.

It is important to note that, according to the doctor, When these types of procedures are performed, patients do not feel any pain. and it is likely that they will not later remember the entire surgery thanks to the fact that they have neuroanesthesia equipment. In addition, he assured that there are also better recovery times.

But the above does not mean that there are no risks. In the medical center's experience, the biggest problem is that there are patients who wake up too startled, in a lot of pain, confused, agitated or unable to follow orders, which makes the procedure difficult and they have to go back to sleep. The problem in these cases is that they only intervene to the extent they know it is safe and they cannot always completely remove the tumor.