COIMBATORE: Coimbatore doctors have performed a keyhole surgery on a four-month old baby’s brain to divert piled up brain fluid into the drainage system.
Keyhole surgeries are usually not performed on babies under the age of one year for this purpose, as the hole created may close. However, the process was chosen as the child was underdeveloped and had multiple complications including Covid-19, and the conventional method of stunt placement was not a viable option.
The baby from Salem was wheeled into city-based KMCH early in October, when doctors found his head enlarged and disproportionate to his 1.1 kg body. His eyeballs were falling forward and limbs were not coordinating.
An MRI revealed that the baby’s fluid cavities were abnormally dilated with locked up brain fluid - a condition called congenital hydrocephalus.
The cerebrospinal fluid was piled up in the third ventricle (centre of the brain), as the small channel between the third and fourth ventricle in the brain stem, was blocked.
“The locked-up fluid was putting pressure on the neural tissues and was causing neurological deficits, which could eventually lead to death,” said senior neurosurgeon Dr JKBC Parthiban.
During this 40-minute procedure called endoscopic third ventriculostomy, the doctors created a hole on the tender tissue floor of the third ventricle, with the pile up, so the fluid could flow out to the surface and reach the usual drainage system.
Doctors said they could see remarkable neurological improvement in the baby one and half months after the surgery.
“The hole may close again after six months when the baby’s brain is still forming, but we could re-perform this process easily or also opt for shunt placement later, when the baby grows and becomes healthier,” said Dr Parthiban.