Brain surgeon tells the medical back story of Congressional Rep. Giffords on Quora

Posted: January 17, 2011

I am a member of Quora but I really don’t spend all that much time thre as I have more than enough time sucks in my life but one thing is for sure – some of the best answers from incredible people who are usually the center of the topic being talked about.

Thanks to @mathewi on Twitter I discovered that a neuroscientist, Bradley Voytek, has posted a great detailed post about what was involved in saving Giffords life over on Quora, along with a whole bunch of related links:

Giffords’ surgeon, Peter Rhee, was “a former military doctor who served in Afghanistan” and her neurosurgeon, Michael Lemole, “removed half of her skull to give the [brain] tissue room. The bone is being preserved at a cold temperature and can be reattached when the swelling subsides.”

The article does not, however, explain this procedure very well, and so I thought I’d give a little bit of an explanation.

This surgery is known as a decompressive hemicraniectomy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dec…

I’ve published research with people who have had this procedure:
http://darb.ketyov.com/professio…

Blogged about that work:
http://blog.ketyov.com/2009/12/r…

Talked about it a TEDxBerkeley last year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k…

And even got picked up by Mind Hacks:
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/20…

And Wired for it:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscienc…