Week 5: More Neurosurgeries and Matlab

I continued this week with working on the PET scan kinetic model using data collected from rats but so far, it has proven to be more difficult to get the model to fit. On top of that, in the animals with mannitol injections to disrupt the blood-brain barrier, we are expecting the transfer coefficients of the experiments to have changed over time, making them even more difficult to analyze and set a reliable model to. We partly suspect there was an issue in measuring blood samples and I should be receiving some more animal data that will hopefully have less variation in measurements for easier analysis.

Aside from Matlab programming, I was also able to see several other surgeries that involved steps not done or seen in previous surgeries. For example, a patient presented with a hernia of the brain and the patient was losing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through the herniation. With the MRI as an initial guide, the surgeons can locate the site by injecting a green dye into the patient's back through a spinal tap which causes CSF to appear green. Any leaking CSF can then be traced by the dye's color back to the origin.

In another surgery, an electrode mesh was placed over a tumor to give a better understanding (with the aid of stimulating the area) of the tumor boundary and vital sections surrounding the tumor such as the motor strip or language areas. With the electrode map, the surgeons can avoid damaging areas that would affect the patient's well-being or quality of life.

The final surgery of note made me realize the limitations of medicine. A patient with a metastatic tumor went in for a surgery that would help save his life because of the size and location in the brain. The surgery, however, does not cure the patient but instead removed only the immediate threat. The patient will still require radiation and chemotherapy to continue to extend their life. A similar story came up recently with Senator John McCain. He had a glioblastoma removed but will continue to be treated with chemo and radiation. Simply removing a tumor does not cure the patient. In each operation I have seen thus far involving tumors, the surgeons have taken extra care to remove areas where suspected tumor cells may reside either by cauterizing (burning) the area or by cutting out tissue immediately surrounding the site. What I learned from this was that sometimes a surgery is only meant as a temporary alleviation, not a treatment, and not a cure.

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