Surgeon Makes Tutorial DVD For Conscious Open-Heart Surgery

Lanxon writes "Swaroup Anand, 23, from Bangalore, was fully conscious as he underwent open-heart surgery. An epidural to the neck, administered at the city’s Wockhardt Hospital, numbed his body during the procedure. Dr Vivek Jawali pioneered the technique ten years ago and has recently released a tutorial on DVD, which gives a step-by-step guide to the procedure for other surgeons to watch and learn from."

Where's the torrent?

[Anonymous Coward]

subject says it all

Beep, Beep, Beeeeeeee

[gimmebeer]

Uh hey Doc, what's that sound mean? Am I gonna.....uuurgggh.

Interesting.

[demonlapin]

This would be utterly fascinating to watch. I would be interested to see how he managed the patient's temperature. In patients undergoing general anesthesia for this procedure, the body is generally cooled in order to reduce the risk of tissues dying due to low blood flow, but that's not as easy an option in this case - the patients can still move their legs, for example, and shivering would be A Bad Thing, as well as subjectively unpleasant.

There's also the small matter of maintaining the integrity of the pleural space - if you expose lungs, the patient can no longer breathe. It's impressive that they've made it work.

Re:Old people

[Cyberax]

"I was awake for the "tooth extraction" which translates to the most horrific medieval hammer and fscking chisel, and horrible horrible sounds and pressures you do not want to remember."

Try tooth extraction without anesthesia someday. Now that's an experience (yes, I know it firsthand).

Re:Old people

[DarthVain]

I would say if the Novocaine isn't working, to screw off.

At least give me whatever drugs are in your desk, and the bottle of whiskey in your filing cabinet!