A man played the saxophone while undergoing brain surgery this week. The operation was carried out at Paideia International Hospital, in Rome, in Italy. Identified only as GZ, the patient is 35 years old.
The intervention lasted nine hours and was carried out to remove a tumor. According to neurosurgeon Christian Brogna, responsible for the procedure, the tumor was completely removed, without compromising GZ's neurological functions.
In a release from the hospital, the doctor spoke about the benefits of performing brain surgery while the patient is awake. “Each brain is unique, just like each person. Awake surgery makes it possible to map with extreme precision, during surgery, the networks of neurons relating to the various brain functions – such as playing, speaking, moving, remembering, counting.”
Interestingly, this is not the first time that a patient has played the saxophone during surgery of this type. Even so, cases like GZ's still attract a lot of attention. The operation carried out in Italy involved a multidisciplinary team of professionals from all over the world, according to the Paideia International Hospital.
“Each ongoing surgery not only allows you to obtain the maximum result in terms of removing the pathology, but is also a true discovery. Each one offers us a window into the functioning of this fascinating, but still mysterious in many ways, organ that is the brain”, points out Christian Brogna.
