Rare brain surgery conducted at IMS and SUM Hospital

Bhubaneswar: In the first ever case of its kind in Odisha, an eminent neurosurgeon has successfully corrected a rare condition known as Anterior encephaloceles in a 14-month-old baby at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, faculty of medicine of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) here.

A portion of the baby’s brain had protruded out covering his eyes and nose in the absence of a piece of the skull bone.

Prof. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, presently Vice-Chancellor of SOA, who conducted the surgery said Anterior encephaloceles was a neural tube defect which occurred very early after conception which either affects the brain or spinal cord.

The baby, Sai Satyajit Behera, was brought to the hospital by his parents on January 8 last as he could not be treated in other hospitals. After he was examined by Prof. Mahapatra, he was admitted for surgery on January 12.

Sai Satyajit, who was discharged from the hospital on Thursday, was doing well after surgery, Prof. Mahapatra said.

Prof. Mahapatra, former Head of Neurosurgery department at AIIMS, New Delhi, said around 150 such operations had been conducted in AIIMS since 1971.

“But this is the first such case I have come across in Odisha,” he said.

This genetic disorder, he said, was found in one in every three lakh live births and was more common in South-East Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Campuchea.

“Though rare in India, some cases do occur in the north-eastern states,” he said.

Earlier, the surgery was being conducted in three statges comprising brain repair, orbital reconstruction and rhinoplasty which took 12 to 14 hours.

“But with development of expertise, we are able to complete the surgery in three to four hours now,” he said.

Eminent Odia cine star Sabyasachi Mishra, known for his philanthropic activities, came forward to help Sai Satyajit’s parents financially to get the surgery done.

“We are grateful to Sabyasachi babu for his immense help,” Prakash Behera, father of the baby and a daily wage earner, said.