IANS Live : Art as healing brings strokes of happiness for patients in India

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Touted as a Western phenomenon to date, art-based healing is seeing more and more health practitioners in India now turning towards it — instead of only depending on diagnostic tools, allopathic and other medicines – to treat certain conditions with terminally-ill patients and those suffering from various stress and neurocognitive disorders, especially in the pandemic times…

Using a similar therapy, doctors at the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre (RGCIRC) keep patients awake during brain tumour surgery. “Imagine being able to talk to your doctor during brain tumour surgery without experiencing any pain and being able to give real time feedback to the doctor. During Awake Surgery, the patient is speaking or singing and moving limbs while the brain tumour is being operated upon so that vital areas in the brain are not tampered with and the body functions remain intact,” Dr. I.C. Premsagar, Chief of Neuro and Spine, Oncology Services, at RGCIRC, told IANS.

There are important centers in the brain such as speech area, language area, and limb movement area.

Earlier there was a possibility of some harm occurring to any of these centres while removing the brain tumour as the patient would be unconscious But “since awake surgery is real time, it ensures that no deficit is created for the patient after surgery is done. And at the same time, maximum tumour can be taken out. For instance, if the speech centre is inside the tumour or very close to the tumour, care needs to be taken that the tumour is taken out carefully and the patient is not functionally disabled,” Premsagar said.