Italian Surgeons Successfully Remove Brain Tumor While Patient Playing Saxophone - Video

ROME (Sputnik) - Italian surgeons have successfully removed a tumor from the brain of a 35-year-old patient who was playing his saxophone during the operation, Italian media reported on Friday.

According to Il Messaggero newspaper, the patient, a resident of Rome with excellent saxophone playing skills, will be discharged soon. The nine-hour operation was carried out under local anesthesia, and the saxophone helped the surgeons avoid touching the areas of the brain responsible for fine motor skills. During the operation, the doctors heard the Italian national anthem and the romantic theme from the 1970 film Love Story, the newspaper reported.

"The patient was playing the saxophone, which is his great passion and a very difficult occupation. The task of the neurosurgeons was even more difficult because the patient was left-handed... Playing is not just moving your hands, but also performing mathematical calculations and using memory, and we also interacted with him," chief neurosurgeon Christian Brogna said, as quoted by Adnkronos news agency.

Similar operations have already been performed in Spain and the United Kingdom. In February 2020, a UK resident played the violin, and in 2015, a Spaniard also performed a saxophone solo for surgeons while being operated on.