Tomorrow, May 9 at 7:30 am CST, a brain tumor resection will be live-tweeted from Houston’s Memorial Hermann hospital. Surgeon Dong Kim will be performing the brain surgery (removal of a cavernous angioma) on a 21-year-old woman. Tweets will be using the hashtag #MHbrain and the social media event will feature not only simple tweets, but also pictures and video, including live video feed from the operating microscope.
Live-tweeting a surgery is not new to the hospital. Less than three months ago they made news by performing the world’s first live-tweeted open heart surgery. The goal of the live-tweeted surgeries is to educate the general public about these diseases and take them into the OR to see what happens during a surgery.
In the upcoming surgery, neuronavigation will be used to identify the entry point and the precise location of the tumor in the patient’s brain. A craniotomy will be performed to remove a portion of the skull bone. A microscope will then be used to take out the tumor deep in the patient’s right brain. Finally, the team will replace the skull bone and complete the surgery.
The twittercast will be moderated by neurosurgeon Scott Shepard, who will be on-site to respond to questions and comments in real time during the event. Videos will be uploaded to Youtube and photos to Pinterest. Storify is used to put the whole story together afterwards. So sit back and relax while watching live-surgery tweeting tomorrow at 7:30am CST, with first incision at approximately 9 a.m. CST.
Coverage of the previously performed heart-surgery: Storify: First Live Tweet of an Open Heart Surgery Mashable: Behind the Scenes of the World’s First Live-Tweeted Open-Heart Surgery
Tomorrow’s event: Twitter: #MHbrain, @houstonhospital; Memorial Hermann