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Banjo Used In Brain Surgery
Ponca City, We love you writes "Legendary bluegrass musician Eddie Adcock has undergone brain surgery to treat a hand tremor, playing his banjo throughout to test the success of the procedure. Adcock suffers from essential tremor, a condition where there is a continuing deterioration in areas of the brain that control movement, causing a tremor that usually appears when the person tries to act or move. Deep brain stimulation can be used to treat the movement difficulties of both Parkinson's and essential tremor by sinking an electrode into the thalamus, a deep brain area that is part of the motor loop — a circuit that helps coordinate movement. Surgeons placed electrodes in Adcock's brain and fitted a pacemaker in his chest, which delivers a small current that shuts down the region of his brain causing the tremors. The most sensible thing to do was to tweak the system while Adcock was playing the banjo to optimize the effect for the thing that's most important to him."
It's very common to have brain surgery like this while awake. In fact it's more common than being unconscious for this type of "functional" surgery because they need to know what they are doing to you in real time.
Usually they anethetise the patient for the first bit, opening the skull and so on. Then they gently bring them back to consciousness to check that the operation is not effecting brain function adversely. For example, when a tumour is removed in speech areas they'll have a nice chat with the patient. Once done they'll put the patient back under. The conscious part of the operation doesn't usually last that long.
Q: Ever hear someone say, "Hey, there's that mansion where that famous banjo player lives?"
A: No, and you never will
What, never hear of Hee Haw? This guy was pickin' and grinnin' all the way to the bank... in one of the airplanes he owns...
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
It looks like a job for Buckaroo Banzai !
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
If anyone is wondering about the type of surgery being performed, here is a link describing it: http://mdc.mbi.ufl.edu/candidate/candidate-whatisdbs.htm
With Deep Brain Stimulation, the patient is often awake for as much of the surgery as possible. The surgeries usually can be done in a morning or an afternoon.
Here is a video of a DBS surgery: http://www.or-live.com/vanderbilt/2319/
That's why his homepage shows him holding a banjo? Oh wait..
It also helps that you don't have pain receptors (or pressure receptors?) inside your brain, only around it.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Hey, there's that mansion where that famous banjo player lives?
Two words: Bela Fleck.
One day the leader of a bluegrass band comes in and finds the fiddle player and the banjo player fighting. The leader asks what the problem is, and the banjo player replies "While I wasn't looking, he reached over and detuned one of the strings on my banjo... and now he won't tell me which string it was!"
What's the definition of "perfect pitch"? Being able to toss a banjo through the hole in an outhouse without hitting the sides.