Download Brain Surgery - Mrs. Laframboise

Brain Surgery
History
 Oldest of the practiced medical arts
 Contrary to popular belief, ancient Egyptians were not the first people to conduct brain
surgery in the ancient world, rather in Iran, in ancient Persia.
 A skull from ancient Persia, was found in one of the Burnt City’s burials, containing
markings thought to have first been mentioned in an ancient Egyptian tale called “The
Story of Sinuhe”, (written around 2000 BC) in hieroglyphs
 In the story, an Egyptian nobleman named Sinuhe discussed open brain surgery
in great detail
Ancient procedures
 Trepanning is the oldest known procedure
 Involves drilling or cutting holes and sometimes using stone tools to go through
the paitents skull
 Was known to correct madness, insanity, other mental illnesses, epilepsy,
headaches, and head injuries or in some cases release evil spirits
 The basic approach in most ancient brain surgery procedures was to remove the part of
the brain that, in the opinion of the practitioner, was failing and has been damaged –
typically the frontal lobe -known to be the part of brain which controls the mental
behaviour of people
 The patients typically survived months or even years after their surgeries
 Pre-Incan civilization used brain surgery as an extensive practice dating back to as early
as 2,000 B.C
William Williams Keen
 United States first brain surgeon
 One of the first successful brain tumour removal (1888)
 Assisted surgeon Joseph Bryant with removing the upper left jaw of U.S. president
Grover Cleveland (1893) for a malignant tumour
Types of Brain Surgeries
 There are several different types of brain surgery. The type used depends on the
problem being treated:
 Leucotomy (or a lobotomy) was the first consistently practiced brain surgery procedure
which began around 1935
 It involves cutting the fiber tracts between the thalamus and the frontal lobes
using a special knife
 The purpose of this intervention was to provide relief from symptoms like severe
depression, psychosis, and violent behavior when other forms of treatment had
failed
 Craniotomy involves an incision into the scalp creating a hole in the skull, known as a
bone flap
 The hole and incision are made near the area of the brain being treated
 Biopsy is used to remove a small amount of brain tissue or a tumor so it can be
examined under a microscope
 This involves a small incision and hole in the skull
 Minimally Invasive Endonasal Endoscopic Surgery allows surgeon to remove tumors or
lesions through your nose and sinuses giving them access to your brain without making
an incision
 involves the use of an endoscope (a telescopic device made with lights and
camera)
 Awake surgery was usually used decades ago typically in epilepsy patients
 Surgeons would keep patients alert to ensure they were destroying the tissue in
the brain that caused uncontrolled seizures