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Health Check: Brain Surgery While Wide Awake

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The Vet with Two Brains

2018/04/11 GMT

Brain Surgery While Wide Awake

BBC World Service - Health Check, Brain Surgery While Wide Awake

Vet has brain tumour removed which was discovered by accident after falling off his bike

The vet with “two brains” has surgery to remove a tumour – while he’s wide awake.

This is an extraordinary story about a vet called Adam who found out he had a brain tumour, following a scan when he had a cycling accident. The low-grade glioma – nicknamed his second brain or the Homunculus – has been growing inside his head, very slowly for ten or even twenty years.  

He’s an old friend of Claudia Hammond – so they decided together to keep a record for Health Check - before, during and after his surgery, which he opted to have done whilst conscious – an “awake craniotomy”.  

His neuro surgeon at the Western General hospital in Edinburgh, Imran Liaquat, explains how he will stimulate parts of Adam’s brain during the operation to see if the tumour can be removed safely without causing too much damage.  Because the tumour spreads via healthy brain cells some “active” tissue will also be lost.  Imran predicts this could cause numbness or weakness down the left side of Adam’s body – and even affect his spatial skills, which are essential for a vet.  

Adam is fit and healthy before the life-changing operation which aims to double his life-expectancy - but could also leave him disabled.

(Photo:  Adam with Imran Liaquat, consultant neurosurgeon from the Western General hospital in Edinburgh)

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