Patient plays saxophone during awake brain surgery

Surgeons in Italy carried out on Thursday an awake brain surgery on a 35-year-old patient as he played on his saxophone. Doctors said the operation to remove a brain tumor was entirely successful.

The surgery, which took place at the Paideia international hospital in Rome, lasted 9 hours and involved a team of 9 doctors and nurses. Awake surgery allows real-time monitoring of any unintentional damage that may be caused by the surgeon during a brain operation. It was one of the first times that such a complex operation was carried out in a private hospital in Italy.