The most important skill required in brain surgery is the suction technique.
To delicately control the strength of the suction, a ‘tear drop’ shape is formed. Dr. Fukushima has devised a ‘tear drop’ shaped suction hole that treats the opening and closing controls the strength of the suction which leads to successful surgery.
I perform the operation with a minimal craniotomy. First the bones of the inner ear canal are removed with an ultrasonic aspirator. The tumor is extracted from the inner ear canal. Complete tumor removal is achieved. The most important thing is to preserve the facial nerve and cochlear nerve (hearing nerve). Taking out the tumor completely and preserving these nerves as much as possible is the goal.
This surgery/procedure is a microvascular decompression done with the keyhole method. The first case of this surgery is the left facial spasm. To decompress the facial nerve, the posterior inferior cerebellar artery is transposed, where the facial nerve emerges from the brainstem. The Teflon tape that is lifted is used to continually transpose the artery. It is done so that the blood vessels don’t come into contact with the nerve to cause spasm. Trigeminal neuralgia surgery is also a procedure to transpose an offending vessel off the trigeminal nerve. When the trigeminal nerve (nerve that is responsible for sensation of the face) is compressed, it causes severe pain in the face. I transpose the blood vessels that are compressing the nerve to relieve pain of the face by releasing pressure on the nerve.
