The team of surgeons who completed the successful awake craniotomy procedure.
KOTA KINABALU: A 40-year-old man suffering from a brain tumour was the second person to undergo the "awake craniotomy" procedure in Sabah on July 11.
The man from Sandakan successfully went under the knife as a conscious patient at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital II (QEH2) here thanks to a team of surgeons from QEH2 as well as Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Kubang Kerian, Kelantan.
The first awake brain surgery in Sabah was performed by specialists from QEH2, UMS and Sungai Buloh Hospital on a 50-year-old female patient suffering from persistent headaches also at QEH2 last Jan 12.
Sabah health director Dr Asits Sanna said the latest patient was diagnosed to have a right front-temporal-parietal tumour at the Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan previously.
"After the operation was completed, the patient was in good health and was able to move his legs and arms without any neurological complication as early as a day after the surgery," he said, in a statement here on Saturday (July 15).
He said the second surgery in Sabah was also carried out by consultant neurosurgeon and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) lecturer Prof Datuk Dr Jafri Malin Abdullah.
This was done together with QEH2 neurosurgery specialists Dr Mohd Sofan Zenian and Dr Hezry Abu Hasan as well as brain anesthesiologist from UMS’ health science and medical faculty Dr Yeap Boon Tat.
"The success of this surgery was the result of preparations and close discussions by QEH2 together with the Duchess of Kent Hospital Sandakan, HUSM and UMS since April this year," Dr Asits said.
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"Due to the complicated nature of the surgery this time, QEH2 invited Dr Jafri to make the surgery a success.
"We have also taken the initiative to share the surgery through live streaming to hospitals in the Sandakan, Tawau and Lahad Datu districts for learning purposes with other doctors after obtaining permission from the patient," he added.
Dr Asits explained that awake craniotomy was an important surgical and anaesthetic technique to ensure that patients did not experience loss of brain function during the brain tumour surgery process.
"Brain functions such as the ability to move legs and arms as well as the ability to speak can be preserved by performing surgery where the patient is conscious and the patient's brain function will be tested during the operation.
"If it is found that the patient's brain function is reduced or lost during the process of removing the tumour, that part of the brain will be avoided from being injured during the surgery," he said.
In addition to that, he said, the monitoring of the condition of the patient's brain function is further improved by using several high-tech intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) medical tools such as motor evoked potential (MEP), somatosensory evoked potential (SSEP) and electromyography (EMG) which were available in Sabah.
"The use of image-guided surgery (IGS) technology to accurately identify the position of cancer in the brain, and also to identify the position of important parts of the brain that needed to be avoided from being injured also made this surgery more successful," he said.
Dr Asits said anaesthetic drugs were administered to the patient by way of target-controlled infusion (TCI) through the "asleep-awake-asleep" method.
"Patients who receive anaesthesia in this conscious state can communicate and interact with the doctor throughout the duration of the surgery," he said, thanking those involved in the surgery.
Links:
First 'awake brain surgery' carried out in Sabah
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