Brain Surgery

1. Brain Surgery By: Ben Wolter

2. Why do some people need brain surgery? Some people need brain surgery because they have diseases that can’t be cured by medications. Here’s a list of a few that can affect the brain and be critical. • Tumor: abnormal growth of cells that normally aren’t in the brain, they put pressure to the brain causing problems. Some tumors even destroy brain cells. • Fracture: skull fracture with a injury or bruise to the brain. • Brain Injury: injury affecting the brain. • Infections: infected part of the brain that needs to be removed.

3. Why is the brain important? The brain needs to be taken care of because it controls everything you do. The has over 10 billion brain cells and over 13 trillion connections. The brain has 5 main parts. • The cerebrum is the part of your brain that does the thinking. It also is about 85% of the weight in your brain. • The cerebellum is in the back of your brain bellow the cerebrum it controls your balance, movement, and coordination (controls your muscles). • The brain stem is what keeps you breathing. • The Pituitary Gland produces and releases hormones. An example is when you grow an inch that is because of the Pituitary Gland. • The hypothalamus is the part of your brain that controls your body temperature (which should be about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degrees Celsius).

4. Blood After operating doctors need to stop the patient from bleeding because if they don’t stop the patient from bleeding the patient can die from shock. Doctors use an electric cautery device to burn the blood vessels when they bleed. They burn the ends of the blood vessels closed.

5. Being a Brain Surgeon If you’re a brain surgeon you have done 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, a 1 year internship, and 6 years of brain surgery, then you apply to get your license. A brain surgeons have scheduled meetings and they have scheduled operating hours however they can be called whenever needed. A brain surgeon would have to know the basic medical algorithms. A brain surgeon doesn’t only work on the brain they also work on the spine. In the operating room it is only you the patient and/ or other health providers. When you are a brain surgeon you have to take a boards test every 10 years, some test can range from about 15 minutes to 3 hours. One of the hardest parts of the surgery is stopping the patient from bleeding because if the patient doesn’t stop bleeding, the patient might die from a shock. Brain surgeons use an electric cautery device to burn the blood vessels when they bleed. After surgery it will take about a few days for a healthy patient to recover. Brain surgeons have a huge range of tools some are small like a scalpel and big like a operating microscope which is the size of a kitchen table.

6. Malignant Brain Tumors • Malignant primary brain tumors are cancers that originate in the brain, typically grow faster than benign tumors, and aggressively invade surrounding tissue. Although brain cancer rarely spreads to other organs, it will spread to other parts of the brain and central nervous system.

7. Benign Brain Tumors • Benign brain tumors usually have clearly defined borders and usually are not deeply rooted in brain tissue. This makes them easier to surgically remove, assuming they are in an area of the brain that can be safely operated on. But even after they've been removed, they can still come back, although benign tumors are less likely to recur than malignant ones.

8. BLS • Access the patients level of consciousness LOC. • Are they awake if the patient can’t be waken up call 911. • Access or see if the patient is breathing alone or check heartbeat if the patient’s not breathing give the patient two breaths pinch the nose and blow into his/ her mouth twice. If this doesn’t work start chest compressions need to do thirty breath compressions. Brain cells will die in three to five minutes without oxygen. You do a cycle of 2 breaths for every thirty compressions for minute before rechecking if the patient has a pulse or can breath on his own. You do not stop until the patient can breath on his own until help comes or if the patient is fine stay with him/ her until help comes.

9. Compare Brain Surgeon: Works on brain and spine. Uses variety of tools. Sometimes has health providers. Has another doctor numb or put the patient asleep. Internal Medicine: No other health providers. Provides medications Both: Uses a variety of medications.

10. Interesting Facts • The first method of brain surgery was where they would poke a hole into the skull using stone tools. After operating they would leave the skull how it is with a part missing. But they thought that was wrong and that it freed evil spirits and demons. • In the year 2000 there were about 8.3 million brain surgeries. • The human brain is 75% water • There are more than 100,000 chemical reactions happening in the human brain every second. • Approximately 20% of the total oxygen in the human body is used by the brain. The brain also uses 20% of the body’s total blood. • Humans grow faster at night because a part of the brain the pituitary gland releases a hormone at night.

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