Brain Surgery, Live on Twitter

Forget live-tweeting the Oscars. Doctors at Houston Hospital are recording their removal of a tumor from a 21-year-old woman's brain.

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Courtesy Memorial Hermann

Live Tweeting of an open-heart surgery.

Doctors at Houston’s Memorial Hermann hospital have set the latest trend in science: live tweeting.

Following on the heels of its live-tweeted open-heart surgery procedure — complete with graphic photos — the Twitter account of the Houston hospital (@houstonhospital) will give amateur sawbones an up-close look at a brain operation performed by Dr. Dong Kim, a neurosurgeon who worked on the team that treated former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

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The roughly four-hour event, which can also be tracked on twitter the hashtag #MHbrain, started at  8:30 a.m. Eastern with play-by-play on how the patient is being prepped for brain tumor resection (the removal of a brain tumor to prevent seizures).

The first incision of what will eventually be a 2-by-2-inch opening in the right side of the skull is expected around 10 am EDT. The brain will be exposed for about 90 minutes as Kim locates and removes a tumor from the patient, a 21-year-old woman.

“What will come out of this is a detailed, real-time sequence of what happens in a brain surgery through all the stages from preparation, to shaving the hair, to making the incision, to draping,” Dr. Kim tells Mashable. “People are very anxious and want to know what goes on in a brain surgery like this.”

While Kim works inside the operating room, an entire media team will handle questions from the Twitter followers, post videos from inside the operating room on YouTube and upload photos on Pinterest. While a brain expert fields the questions, the team will also sort through the video coming through Kim’s fiber optic microscope. A word of warning: If the photos from the last surgery are any indication, this isn’t for the faint of heart.

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