The Healing Blade: A Tale of Neurosurgery
In a splendid, often riveting account of high-tech procedures and personalities at the forefront of modern brain surgery, Sylvester ( Target: Cancer ) takes readers into the famed Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix, Ariz. There a staff of elite surgeons, led by director Robert Spetzler and equipped with the latest image-scanning machines and measuring techniques, pushes the frontiers of neurosurgery. The author's precise prose and apt imagery bare the interaction between staff members and patients linked by this exact and problematic surgery, illuminating the NASA-like preparation and teamwork involved in such procedures as hypothermic arrest, when the patient's blood is first chilled and then drained from his body for up to an hour. Focussing on Spetzler and the demands of his work, Sylvester offers an immediate, thorough and lucid chronicle.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.