The brain is a beautiful organ. If you haven't had a chance to see a freshly opened skull (in a controlled operative setting, craniotomy by hatchet doesn't count), you really need to before you die. To see the brain pulsating with each heart beat, glistening in CSF with the blood vessels coursing its surface is truly one of the most beautiful things I've seen while alive.
Today I assisted in a temporal lobectomy. The indication for this surgery is usually medically intractable seizures. Oftentimes the temporal lobe, whether it be due to structural abnormalities or aberrant neuronal synapses, is the source of seizures that are poorly responsive to medications. So... when something is causing problems, surgeons take it out. In order to perform the lobectomy, however, you have to make a fairly decent sized bone window to approach the lobe and take it out. Consequently, you get to see a lot of brain. After making an approximately 30cm upside down question mark shaped incision, drilling down the bone and cutting out a roughly 10cm diameter flap of bone, we cut open the dura and voila, there she was, glistening in all her glory. Cheezy yes, but you really gotta see it to believe how beautiful it is. I'm an adrenaline junky and aesthetic... it's moments like these that make the 110 hour work weeks and 30 hour work shifts worth it... barely... but yea, worth it.
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1 comment:
picture next time perhaps? i'll trade you for one of a placenta! maybe a dermoid?
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