A surgical instrument tray. The tools laid out horizontally in the center of the tray are brain dissectors; the thick-handled instrument up by the sponges is for scraping bone.
The incision outline behind the patient’s right ear.
Specialized instruments for use under the microscope.
After the incision has been made, a retractor (which looks like a large tuning fork) holds the scalp and muscle back while a bipolar coagulation device (the wired device in the rightmost hand) is used to close off blood vessels.
Dr. Gutin lathering his hands before entering the operating room, where the brain has already been uncovered.
Dr. Gutin, mid-surgery, gazing at a computer guiding system, which shows the contours of the patient’s brain.
The image on the screen shows a brain retractor (big, flat, and black) pulling back the cerebellum, as well as an ultrasonic aspirator (with a whitish tip, which vibrates to scramble the tumor before suctioning it up). “It’s like a tumor vacuum cleaner,” Dr. Gutin says.
The surgeon, wielding an instrument.
Dr. Gutin assisting ear surgeon Dr. Samuel Selesnick, a partner in the operation, who is seated at the microscope.
A scrub nurse, passing an instrument.
Dr. Gutin sitting at the robotic-armed microscope, with Dr. Selesnick assisting.
Dr. Gutin at the microscope.
The surgeons at work. The windmill-like device on the right is actually a navigation system of sorts, and allows the doctors to know exactly where they are on the MRI scan, which was taken the day before. “It’s almost like a GPS device,” Dr. Gutin says.
The patient’s wife embraces Dr. Gutin after the surgery.