Catia Dombaxe/ Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Fu Week 2

 Week 2 (06/12/23 - 07/16/23

What a packed week full of learnings and outstanding insights!!!

I started the week by shadowing three different surgeries conducted by Dr. Fu. My very first experience in the OR was beyond life changing, being able to see how neurosurgeons think inside and outside of the OR gave me outstanding insights and changed my perspective on how I conduct my surgeries in animal models for my research. 

The first surgery I watched/shadowed was a Laminectomy and cyst removal at Lumbar 4-5. The patient had a 2.5 mm cyst that was removed successfully. There was no evident complications and it was a great teaching moment for me: first because it was my first time in the OR, second because I was able to learn how different a laminectomy is different from a human and from a mice, third because I was able to talk with the radiologist in the room and I learned about the cutting edge technology the hospital has been using to detect the vertebrae in the human body to better guide neurosurgeons.

For the rest of the week under Dr. Fu, I watched more surgeries such as nerve biopsy in the lower right extremity and a C6-7 anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.

For the rest of the week, I met with Dr. Schwartz, set goals and expectations for my wet lab and clinical research. I also did a lab tour and came up with a research plan with my mentor. For the summer, the name of my project is Free Behavioural Calcium Imaging in Mouse for Epilepsy. 1. I will be trained on the free behaving mScope and surgeries to implant it, 2. I will trained on the control systems, 3. I will implant Thy S1 GCaMP 6f system fro analysis and I will be working on the coding to measure functional connectivity.

I also spent the day watching presentations during the 10th Annual Department of Neurological Surgery Resident Research Day in which presentation ranging from insurance transparency and clinical cases of patients suffering from brain tumours and brainstem compressions.

I ended my week shadowing Dr. Schwartz conduct a right sided electroencephalographic robotic surgery. Dr. Schwartz used ROSA (Robotic Stereotactic Assistance) to implant electrodes in the brain to detect which regions of the brain the epileptic signals are located. This is a minimally invasive surgery and safer.

It was a great week and I am looking forward to more teachings next week.

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