Musician's dystonia: Bengaluru techie strums guitar as surgeons drill into his brain | Watch Video

In a seven-hour surgery at a city hospital last week, a 32-year-old Bengaluru techie-turned-musician played the guitar on the operation table while doctors burned his head to cure neurological disorder.

The person has experienced the first cramps more than a year and a half ago while playing the guitar. Musical Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder. It is caused by the brain sending incorrect information to the muscles and is characterised by involuntary, prolonged muscle contractions, which cause affected parts of the body to be twisted into abnormal postures. It can affect a range of parts of the body including the neck, eyes, voice and hand. 

While the doctors burned parts of his brain that triggered the abnormal tremors in his muscles,musician played the guitar to help them locate the distressing areas. A senior neurologist from the University of British Columbia, Dr SanjivC C, said,"This problem occured 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 replied".

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

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 specialized electrode was passed into the brain following which it was stimulated to confirm the right location and prevent complications," he said.

"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," musician said.