sarahness

Roger Frisch, a concert master with the Minnesota Orchestra, lay on the operating table playing his violin while surgeons operated on his brain.

He was diagnosed with essential tremors, a condition that occurs when sections of the brain that control movement start sending abnormal signals.

Dr. Kendall Lee, director of the Mayo Clinic Neural Engineering Laboratory, resorted to deep brain stimulation – a surgical treatment that implants an electrode to send electrical pulses to the specific parts of the brain signaling erroneously.

Lee and his team of surgeons found the area of Frisch’s brain sending abnormal signals and implanted two electrodes. That allowed tiny electronic pulses to be sent from a pacemaker-like device into the brain.

Since the brain does not contain pain receptors, patients can be awake during surgery and do not feel pain. The device is normally implanted while patients are under local anesthesia, but Frisch also underwent the surgery while playing his violin to let the surgeons pinpoint the exact spot to target in his brain with the pulses.

Frisch’s surgery was not even over when his tremors eased and he gained back control of his hands.

“It was truly remarkable, enough that the entire room broke out in applause,” said Frisch.

Although stimulation has reduced the number of tremors, he probably will experience tremors for the rest of his life, according to Lee. But that prognosis has not stopped Frisch, who said his tremors will not rob him of the chance to perform again.

“I fell in love with the violin before I started playing,” said Frisch. “Since I was a little boy, playing in the orchestra was all I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”