Senator John McCain recently had surgery to “remove a blood clot above his left eye” according to a CNN report. CNN, fortunately, didn’t have a chance to wade into their familiar territory of fake news because they had a practicing neurosurgeon, and CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta on hand to discuss Senator McCain’s surgery.
Despite the cheery description, “minimally invasive craniotomy,” this was brain surgery, opening the skull and removing something from the Senator’s brain. Nothing simple or minimal about this. Otherwise, neurosurgeons wouldn’t need many years of training to perform such delicate surgery.
Dr. Gupta is correct in calling what was removed from the Senator’s brain “an abnormality.” It could also be described as “a lesion” or “a mass.” Although news articles called it “a blood clot,” it was sent to pathology to be reviewed under a microscope to see what was actually removed.
Typically blood that is drained or removed from a body cavity is not examined under a microscope. Such detailed analysis is used for a tissue diagnosis. Meaning that there was likely something besides blood removed from the Senator’s brain.
Lots of possibilities. A cyst. A mass, meaning a growth or tumor. Could be benign or malignant. Could be primary to the brain or spread from somewhere else.
Senator McCain was diagnosed with cutaneous or skin melanoma in 2000. One of his skin tumors penetrated a bit deeper into the skin, meaning higher risk of spread throughout his body. But this was also 17 years ago.
His surgery and lymph node analysis found no evidence of spread. Good news at the time. But the old saying applies, “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
Fast forward to last month, when Senator McCain was questioning former FBI director James Comey at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. As the Washington Post reported at the time, McCain “referred to ‘President Comey,’ and at times looked confused and frustrated with Comey’s answers. Viewers clearly thought it was notable; Twitter announced it was the most-tweeted moment of the hearing.”
Partisan questioning or an uninformed Senator trying to sound smart in front of the TV cameras? Or something more?
Senator’s McCain recent surgery was just above his left eye. Meaning the frontal lobe of his brain. The brain is incredibly complex, and each portion has specific purposes. What does the frontal lobe do?
The frontal lobe is responsible for higher functions of the brain. Personality, thought process, problem solving and conscience. Including socially acceptable responses. In other words, specifically human aspects of behavior, as opposed to lower brain functions such as the “fight or flight” response.
A lesion in the frontal lobe could certainly be responsible for behavioral changes, such as his “bizarre questioning of Comey” as described by the Washington Post.
Whether the Senator just had a blood clot pressing on his brain or whether he had a tumor, melanoma or otherwise, remains unknown. I am an eye surgeon, not a neurosurgeon, and am not the Senator’s physician. But given the speculation by reporters and journalists who know little about medicine, I wanted to provide another, hopefully, more educated and useful analysis of the Senator’s situation.
I wish Senator McCain and his family the best under these challenging circumstances.
Brian C. Joondeph is an ophthalmologist and can be reached on Twitter @retinaldoctor. This article originally appeared in the American Thinker.
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