32-year-old Indian musician plays guitar as doctors operate on his brain

He was suffering from Dystonia, a condition that occurs due to abnormal and involuntary flexion of muscles

BENGALURU: An Indian techie-turned-musician strummed the guitar on the operation table while doctors ‘burned’ his brain to fix a neurological disorder, said a Times of India report.

The seven-hour surgery at a local hospital in Bengaluru – the capital of Karnataka state – last week, relieved the youth of musician's dystonia, a condition that cramped three fingers on his left hand.



Tushar* experienced the first cramps over a year-and-a-half ago while playing the guitar. The 32-year-old’s dystonia occurs due to abnormal and involuntary flexion of muscles.

While the Indian doctors burned parts of his brain that triggered the abnormal tremors in his muscles, Tushar played the guitar to help them locate the troublesome areas.

According to Dr Sanjiv C C, a senior neurologist at the University of British Columbia, "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."

"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,” explained Dr Sharan Srinivasan, a stereotactic and functional neurosurgeon at Jain Institute of Movement Disorders and Stereotactic Neurosurgery.

"These MRI images showed three coordinates of the target area in the brain (8-9cm deep, in this case) along with the entry point to the skull and the path to be followed during surgery.



"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 said.

The Indian musician is being cured now. "I was amazed to see my 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," said Tushar.

* The name has been changed to protect the identity of the individual. 

This story originally appeared on The Times of India