SUM docs remove brain tumour without surgery

BHUBANESWAR:  For the first time in the State, the doctors of Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here on Saturday successfully removed a brain tumour without opening the skull.The endo nasal endoscopic approach to remove the tumour was performed on Silu Jena, an electrician from Nabarangpur. The 31-year-old had come to SUM Hospital with headache on the right side, double vision in the eye and numbness on the right side of face for the last few months.

Dr Radhamadhab Sahu, an expert in ENT and Endoscopic Skull Base surgery and a senior consultant at the hospital, examined the patient and a MRI of the brain suggested it was a case of ‘Trigeminal Schwannoma’ arising in Meckel’s Cave area which compressed the cavernous sinus in brain. 

Though the conventional approach was to perform an open craniotomy (surgical removal of a portion of the skull to reach the tumour), Dr Sahu and Dr S Panigrahi decided to perform Advanced Endoscopic Skull Base surgery (trans nasal trans pterygoid approach) to remove the tumour successfully without leaving any scar on the patient.

This endo nasal endoscopic approach provides a direct trajectory to the tumour with minimised risk to trigeminal nerve, abducens nerve,cavernous sinus and carotid artery. This is the first time in Odisha, that an endoscopic approach has been used to remove this particular tumor, Dr Sahu said.