When a circular opening is cut into the skull to reveal brain tissue and decrease intracranial pressure, this is called
A) tractotomy.
B) thalamotomy.
C) cryosurgery.
D) trephination.
E) stereotaxy.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Trephination is the surgical procedure of making a circular opening in the skull to access the brain, and it was historically used to treat various brain disorders. Thus, this is the correct term for the given scenario. Choice A, tractotomy, refers to the cutting of nerve tracts to treat certain psychiatric or neurological conditions, while thalamotomy (B) involves the destruction of a part of the thalamus to alleviate chronic pain or movement disorders. Cryosurgery (C) is a technique that uses extremely cold temperatures to destroy abnormal tissues, such as cancer cells, and stereotaxy (E) is a method of precisely targeting brain areas using three-dimensional coordinates for either diagnostic or therapeutic purposes.

When a Circular Opening Is Cut into the Skull to Reveal