In a pioneering surgical intervention in the country, Jordanian doctors in the neurosurgery department at Prince Hamzah Hospital in the capital, Amman, performed a brain tumor removal surgery on a twenty-something patient without general anesthesia.
What was the reason? Dr. Mohammed Al-Tarawneh, head of the neurosurgery department at the hospital, told "Al Arabiya.net" that the operation lasted for 6 hours, adding that the patient was fully awake and suffering from stubborn seizure attacks.
He explained that the idea of keeping the patient awake was to guide him to perform certain tasks during the surgery to ensure the safety of sensitive functions near the tumor site. The patient was able to make a video call in the middle of the operation with his family to give him a dose of optimism.
Dr. Al-Tarawneh confirmed that such surgeries are conducted to treat patients who have tumors close to vital centers in the brain, such as speech and comprehension centers. He emphasized that these procedures aim to keep the patient awake and capable of cooperating with the medical team by continuously talking to them during the brain tumor removal, thus avoiding complications like loss of speech or language comprehension.
The operation involved Dr. Mohammed Al-Tarawneh, head of the neurosurgery department; brain tumor surgery specialist Abdul Halim Abdeh; neurosurgery specialists Dr. Hossam Anasweh and Dr. Mustafa Al-Woreikat; along with operating room nurse Hamza Al-Qurna.
The anesthesia team included Dr. Mahmoud Abu Aleem, Dr. Rasim Talal, and Dr. Faleh Abu Sakr, who replaced general anesthesia with local anesthesia and necessary sedatives, in line with the need to keep the patient awake throughout the surgery.
