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Images from surgery.1
A resident takes away skull section as it is removed by Robert Spetzler, hidden at rear. The patient’s head is held in a Mayfield Brace in the optimum position for the approach the neurosurgeon has chosen, and now the intraoperative microscope can be wheeled in. Hours later, the skull flap will be replaced using tiny, screwed-in plates.
The door to OR 1 frames Spetzler at work in the “dentist’s chair”, the controls of the intraoperative microscope gripped in his mouth. Residents watch the procedure over his shoulder or, wearing special glasses, on the 3-D monitor above.
Purified air and oxygen cables frame the patient’s brightly illuminated brain as Spetzler works his way down to the aneurysm. The microscope projects the image to Spetzler and the assisting resident to his right, as well as to monitors on the walls. Spetzler has just interrupted so the nurse behind him can adjust the operating table.