The New York Times Science section (11/17/09) profiled two neurosurgeons performing a cutting edge procedure- placing microcatheters up into the tiniest vessels in the brain and spraying chemotherapy right into a brain tumor. The way the article is written, it sounds like the patient is laying there…very, very still.  Does the surgeon say “Now don’t move, otherwise the blood vessel may just rupture!” What is blatantly missing from the piece is the role of anesthesia. This procedure requires general anesthesia. The patient is completely asleep and on a ventilator. Who makes sure the patient doesn’t move at critical points during the case?  Was that minor detail an oversight by the New York Times? Half a story is missing from the article. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/health/17tumor.html?_r=1&ref=science

missing anesthesiologist

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