Italian woman prepares olives during brain tumour operation

Brain operation patients have been asked to play the violin or the guitar, but until now there is no record of anyone stuffing olives on the operating table.

Об этом сообщает FIB

A 60-year-old Italian woman did just that during a procedure to remove a tumour from her left temporal lobe.

The neurosurgeon at Ancona’s Riuniti hospital said the two and a half hour procedure "went very well".

His patient is said to have prepared 90 olives in the space of an hour.

Awake brain surgery, as it is known, is used to treat some neurological conditions such as tumours that affect the areas of the brain responsible for vision, movement or speech, so the patient can be asked questions and suffer minimal damage.

"It’s a method that allows us to monitor the patient while we work on their brain functions and to calibrate our action," neurosurgeon Roberto Trignani told Ansa news agency after the operation, which involved 11 medical staff.

Dr Trignani has performed some 60 operations involving awake brain surgery in recent years. Another patient in Ancona has been asked to watch cartoons.

Preparing Ascoli olives is far more complicated, though, and Italian media describe how the operating theatre resembled something of a kitchen during the procedure.

A speciality of the Marche region of central Italy, they consist of pitted green olives wrapped around balls of seasoned meat, and are coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs before being fried.