Indian Dr. performs awake brain surgery (Dr. Khurana to teach at Ban

Indian-born Australian doctor performs path-breaking brain surgery

By IANS
Monday September 24, 04:15 PM
Sydney, Sep 24 (IANS) Indian-born Australian doctor Vini Gautam
Khurana and his team at Canberra Hospital have performed the world's
first awake brain keyhole surgery to remove a life-threatening
aneurysm or a large blister from a patient's brain.

'We believe it is the first time that this kind of aneurysm and
malformation have been shut down through a keyhole approach in an
awake patient assisted by cutting-edge technology,' said Khurana
after operating on a 77-year-old man suffering malformation in a
major vein in his brain, behind his right eye, that was impairing his
vision.

Khurana said the keyhole surgery, performed through a 1.5cm hole
drilled into the patient's skull with the patient comfortably awake
during the critical parts of the surgery, was so successful that the
patient was able to leave the hospital within a few days with a
marked improvement in his vision.

'We had rehearsed the surgical approach using specialist imaging
software to understand the anatomy of the malformation and their
relationship to the skull base,' said Khurana.

US-trained Khurana, who migrated to Australia in 1973, belongs to a
family of doctors. Both his parents were doctors and his brother is a
Fulbright scholar at Harvard studying Neurology.

'I was two-and-half years old, when we migrated to Australia, but our
roots are very much Indian and we have strong links back home. I am
looking forward to more interaction with premier Indian hospitals
like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New
Delhi. My parents were trained at AIIMS'.

'We have started an Awake Brain Surgery Programme for high risk
vascular and tumour conditions of the brain following the success of
the surgery,' said Khurana, who is a staff specialist neurosurgeon at
the Canberra Hospital and Associate Professor of Neurosurgery for
Australian National University Medical School.

'We've also applied for permission to conduct surgery and teach at
the Saibaba Charitable hospital in Bangalore', said Khurana,