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Questions posted in the
Neurology and Neurosurgery Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
Question Title: brain surgeryForum: Neurology Forum
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I am doing a report for class and I need to know: Why do you keep the patients awake during surgery??
= Thanks for your question. The main reason to keep a patient awake during a neuro-surgical procedure is when it involves the resection of a tumor, or of a focus of epilepsy that is very close or actually within a so-called "eloquent" brain region. These are regions where the resection would result in significant motor, or sensory impairment, and they include: the primary motor cortex, and adjacent suplementary motor cortices; the primary somatosensory cortex; the visual cortex; and the auditory cortex. One method of "mapping" these areas intra-operatively (thus avoiding their damage) is by using small focal eletric stimulation over the brain tissue and rely on the patient's perception of the stimulus. A modification of this method is to ask the patient to execute a simple task (such as saying words) and observe interruption/disruption of the task during electric simulation. Since the brain tissue itself does not contain pain receptors, all these manipulation are painless to the patient. I hope this information is helpful. Best of luck.
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