One day, one news story : Australian has 'world-first' conscious brain surgery

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian man was conscious and spoke to his medical team during life-saving brain surgery in what doctors are claiming as a world-first procedure with cutting-edge technology.


John James said it was a strange experience to hear the doctors and nurses talking to each other as he lay on the operating table with a 1.5-centimetre (half-an-inch) hole in his head.

But he said he was confident throughout the April surgery to remove an aneurysm from his brain, which threatened to burst and kill him.

"The nurses looking after me, they were talking to me," the retired bus driver told a press conference in Canberra. "I could only see bits because I couldn't move my head at all."

"I wasn't worried whatsoever.... I was quite confident all the way through."

Doctors asked James to read the words and numbers on flashcards shown to him during the surgery so they knew they were not affecting his vision.

The team believes the combination of the technology and the small size of the hole in James's head, as well as the fact he was conscious throughout the operation, makes it a world first.

"As far as I'm aware reading the literature, this kind of thing done as a package has never been done before," Canberra Hospital neurosurgeon Vini Khurana said.

"So we were pleased. The result was obviously very good."

Virtual reality software, which created a three-dimensional image of James's brain, was used to allow the team to rehearse the operation to drain the blood from the aneurysm.

During the surgery, Khurana had a 3-D image of the brain projected onto one side of his eyepiece. On the other side he could see a close-up view of the brain through a microscope.

An ultrasound probe was also used to ensure that no more blood was flowing through the aneurysm after the drainage was completed.

"The technology we used was quite extraordinary," Khurana said.

"It's like GPS navigation that you use in the car being injected into your sunglasses as you drive."

James, who has since turned 78, initially went to the doctor because of problems with his vision and dizzy spells and scans revealed the potentially deadly aneurysm.

Surgery was required but because the aneurysm was behind his right eye the operation could have blinded him, which is why the doctors wanted him awake during the procedure.

The great-grandfather, who was sent home two days after the operation, said he felt fine after the surgery.

"I had to sit for an hour to make sure everything was alright," he said. "I just came back to normal after that."

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