Indian techie-turned-musician plays guitar during his brain operation

In what could be described as an unusual operation, surgeons in India's Bengaluru have successfully "burned" parts of a techie-turned-musician's brain to correct a neurological disorder while the 32-year-old strummed his guitar on the operation table.

The patient, whose name has not been mentioned, was suffering from musician's dystonia, a condition that had cramped three fingers on his left hand. The seven-hour-long operation was carried out last week.

He experienced the first cramps more than a year and a half ago while playing the guitar. Musician's dystonia occurs due to abnormal and involuntary flexion of muscles, because of rigorous use.

While the doctors "burned" parts of his brain that triggered the case, the patient was made to play his guitar to help them locate the troublesome areas.

"This problem occurred when he tried to play the instrument and real-time feedback was important for us to ascertain the exact location of the target to be repaired," Dr Sanjiv C C, a senior neurologist at the University of British Columbia, was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

Dr Sharan Srinivasan, a stereotactic and functional neurosurgeon at Jain Institute of Movement Disorders and Stereotactic Neurosurgery: "This is a surgery where the part of the brain triggering abnormal tremors is destroyed by burning. Before the surgery, a special frame was fixed to his head with four screws going deep into the skull following which an MRI was conducted."

"Based on these coordinates, a 14mm hole was drilled into the skull under local anaesthesia and a specialised electrode was passed into the brain following which it was stimulated to confirm the right location and prevent complications," he added.

Doctors said that witnessing the man's fingers improve while playing the guitar lying on the operating table was an amazing experience.

After the surgery, the techie-turned-musician said that he was amazed to see his fingers improve magically on the operation table itself. "By the end of the surgery, my fingers were 100% cured and I could move them like before. Within three days of surgery, I walked out of the hospital all set to play guitar again," he said.