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From the New Zealand Press:

Banjo master plays during brain surgery


BRAIN SURGERY: Eddie Adcock plays banjo as his brain is operated on.
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A bluegrass maestro whose career was being hampered by a hand tremor was asked to play his banjo during brain surgery, so surgeons could pinpoint the right part of the brain to work on.
Eddie Adcock, 70, endured agony to keep twanging his banjo during the procedure, in which surgeons prodded and inserted electrodes into his brain.
Adcock has been playing the banjo since he was a child and is renowned as an exponent of bluegrass. He formed a "dynamic duo" with his wife, Martha Adcock, the pair becoming known as the "biggest little band in Bluegrass", according Wikipedia.
But Martha recently noticed a deterioration in her husband's fast-picking style because of "mysterious shakes in his right hand", the Daily Mail said.
"When I first noticed, his skills were not the same and we were trying to figure out what was going on," she said.
"It was distressing because this has been his whole life."
Adcock was diagnosed with "essential tremor", an involuntary trembling that affects millions of people, the paper said,.
Surgeons at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville in the US, proposed a "deep brain stimulation" operation, in which electrodes placed in Adcock's brain would send electric impulses to suppress the nerve cells causing his tremors.
But to ensure they were placing the electrodes in the right spot, the surgeons kept Adcock awake with a local anaesthetic and asked him to keep plucking at his Deering GoodTime banjo, while prodding his brain through a hole in his skull, the Daily Mail said.
"When the surgeons found the right part of the brain, Adcock instantly regained his ability and was able to play at full speed once again," the paper said.
"The operation ended on a high note with a twang of lightning fast banjo picking."
Adcock told the paper: "I came up in music the hard way and learned to be a trouper fast.
"Some of those early days were pretty rough, and I've been stomped, cut and kicked; but I never went through hell like this - it was the most painful thing I've ever endured.
"And it was risky. But I did it for a reason: I'm looking forward to being able to play music the way I did years ago prior to getting this tremor. It means that much to me. I'm far from being done."
Doctor's yesterday declared the operation a success.
The electrodes are connected to a pacemaker implanted in Adcock's chest.
When electrodes are switched off Adcock struggles to draw shapes on paper, but with the pacemaker turned on, his finger picking skills are as good as ever, the Daily Mail said.

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Wha's the big deal!
Everybody knows you don't need a brain to play banjo!

That's actually pretty cool! I've heard they're doing the same type of thing for Parkinsons too!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

BBC news has a vid..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7665747.stm

Fascinating stuff.

They only need a local as the brain itself has no pain receptors to indicate any pain. I've heard of them doing these types of things and as they stimulate various areas, the patient will report a certain smell or taste resulting from the stimulation, which would be pretty weird.

Pretty cool that they were able to help him.

Darrin

WOW!!

I have a couple of pals who had laser eye surgery which is done under local....

they said it's weird smell your eyeballs burning.......

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

Nice, Martin. Well that's out me off for life.



There was an interesting article I saw once where surgeons were poking and prodding the area of a patient's brain where speech is controlled. Every time they made contact, the patient's previous lucid speech became a surreal jumble of random words although he thought he was saying the right things.

Why do I have a feeling that in a 100 years time, today's brain surgery will seem incredibly barbaric? There is still so little that is known about the human brain...Cellwise; the multiplication of 100 billion neurons times 40,000 synapses...allegedly outnumbering the stars in the universe...

Exactly and well said Sammy!!!! I recently read somewhere that one of the top 3 causes of death in the US is medical intervention......... Get hospitalized and stay there for a week or more and you have a 50% chance of catching a staff infection that may kill you.......

No offense to health care workers intended but I too often wonder what they will think of us just 100 short years from now when they discuss what we considered the state-of-the-art in medicine today.

I've met him several times. Nice fellow. Glad to hear he's better.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

As it turns out, although I'm not a brain surgeon, brain surgery is my day job! I'm a sales rep for Medtronic Navigation. A sister devision makes the electrodes and generators for DBS while my division makes the system used to target the right area of the brain. It's also used to improve accuracy in brain surgery, spine surgery etc.

I actually saw my first Deep Brain Stimulation case only about two years ago. It is rather amazing when they flip the switch and the tremor stops.

When you consider progress in general, don't forget that what we're doing might be considered archaic in 100 years, without doing what we're doing now, there is no progress.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

"So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature , since it enables one to find or make a Reason for every thing one has a mind to do.", B.Franklin
In this case, a little electricity helps.

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Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Very well said Andy my friend. Now I know why at the recent A2 gathering you were chasing me around with those electrodes.........

Waiting patiently for someone to weigh-in and express sorrow that you didn't catch me......

None taken, because you are correct in the fact that nosocomial (hospital aquired) infections are a problem....especially staph. No telling how much money is spent on treatment of nosocomial infections....and something that is preventable.

DANG MARTIN! I was thinking about laser surgery, and now I can't, for 2 reasons:
1- I dont want to smell my eyeballs burning
2-NOW, I couldn't lie still because I would be thinking about what you said, laughing my backside off!

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Brad Tucker

I wonder how long it takes for Deering to incorporate this into an ad campaign!