Unusual insights into the daily life of neurosurgery—and into the human brain: A world-renowned brain surgeon recounts extraordinary cases and his daily routine in the operating room. A fascinating non-fiction book on the subject of brain surgery and neuroscience. Professor Dr. Peter Vajkoczy is the director of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Charité Hospital in Berlin. He cares for up to one hundred patients from all over the world on his three wards and, together with his team, performs up to five or six operations per day – mostly for strokes, brain tumors, bypasses, and spinal disorders. These operations are physically demanding, often gruelingly long, and highly complex. And everything takes place on a microscopic scale: the surgeon sees what they are doing only through a microscope at up to forty times magnification and sutures with threads that are only a few hundredths of a millimeter in diameter. Although it is often claimed that Professor Vajkoczy and his team perform miracles, it is primarily the well-practiced interplay of highly trained specialists, state-of-the-art technology, and a willingness to explore new avenues that makes healing possible. However, all of this is no guarantee that the desired outcome will be achieved. If something goes wrong, there is a high risk that patients will only survive with severe disabilities or, in the worst-case scenario, not at all. It's a fine line that Professor Vajkoczy and his team walk, always, every day, with every operation, even those that seem manageable. With candid honesty, Professor Vajkoczy explains how he and his team cope with this challenge, how the most difficult operations are planned and performed, what motivates him as a neurosurgeon, and what he feels when he fails—and when his plan succeeds. Notes: New product