Rachel Matthew - Dr. Gauthier - Week 5

 This week, I shadowed several more neuro surgeries. The first was an endoscopic ventriculostomy to remove a cyst. Similar to most of the neurosurgeries that I have observed, it was guided using imaging techniques that correspond with MRI images, allowing the surgeons to plan out and precisely locate the area of interest in the brain. Once the cyst was found the surgeon was able to make a small hole in the tissue to allow excess fluid to drain out and also used a balloon to increase the diameter of the hole to let the fluid drain faster and ensure it did not close too quickly. 

The next surgery was a stereotactic biopsy of abnormal tissue located deep within the brain. This procedure required a special needle and mount to allow the surgeons to reach the lesion without damaging other tissue. The needle and mount connected with the imaging machine and were overlayed onto the patient's MRI images enabling the doctors to see the exact angle and depth they needed to ensure they only removed abnormal tissue. Once they reached the surgeons were able to excise samples they were sent off to be tested. The initial testing only took about 20 minutes, with the results indicating that the tissue was abnormal. However, further testing would be needed to identify the details and cause of this abnormal tissue. 

The last surgery I observed was an endoscopic tumor removal located near the pituitary gland. This procedure was interesting because the surgeons went through the patient's nostril due to the tumor's location. Once the tumor was located, it was removed in small pieces with some being saved for further testing. This removal was slow to ensure the entire tumor was removed and to minimize the risk of damage to the gland. Once removed the closure was very similar to what I had seen before, except there was no metal plate needed, and the excess skin was used to pack and close the incision site. 

For research, I was given more images to run on both pipelines and compare them to the segmentation corrected by the radiologist. I also began quantitatively comparing the images to understand what the pipelines are picking up on and why they are missing certain lesions. 

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