With this kind of surgery, if the aneurysm ruptures before you reach it, it can be very difficult to control the bleeding. The brain suddenly swells and arterial blood shoots upwards, turning the operative site into a rapidly rising whirlpool of angry, swirling red blood, through which you struggle desperately to get down to the aneurysm. Seeing this hugely magnified down the microscope you feel as though you are drowning in blood. One quarter of the blood from the heart goes to the brain – a patient will lose several litres of blood within a matter of minutes if you cannot control the
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