Patients are often kept awake during brain surgery but asking them to play the violin at the same time is a novel approach taken by a London hospital.
The patient was 53-year-old Dagmar Turner who plays in the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra.
The surgery team at King’s College Hospital had to remove a large grade 2 (slow growing) glioma. This had been diagnosed after she had a seizure during a performance and it had grown further requiring surgery.
The tumour was in the right frontal lobe of her brain, close to the area controlling left hand fine movements on the violin strings and fingerboard.
During her consultation, she learned that her neurosurgeon, Professor Keyoumars Ashkan, also held a music degree and is an accomplished pianist.
Understanding her fear of losing her musical skills during the operation, Prof Ashkan and the surgical team planned the surgery in stages. She was under general anaesthetic for the craniotomy then brought round for tumour removal, while she played her instrument.
The hospital carries out around 400 similar procedures a year but this was the first involving a violin.
In a news release, Prof Ashkan said: "We knew how important the violin is to Dagmar so it was vital that we preserved function in the delicate areas of her brain that allowed her to play. We managed to remove over 90% of the tumour, including all the areas suspicious of aggressive activity, while retaining full function in her left hand."
Dagmar Turner praised the King's team: "The violin is my passion; I’ve been playing since I was 10 years old. The thought of losing my ability to play was heart-breaking but, being a musician himself, Prof Ashkan understood my concerns. He and the team at King's went out of their way to plan the operation – from mapping my brain to planning the position I needed to be in to play. Thanks to them I’m hoping to be back with my orchestra very soon."
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