Doctors prepare one-year-old girl Roona Begum, suffering from hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid inside the skull that leads to swelling, for surgery at a hospital in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi.
NEW DELHI: Doctors said yesterday they had successfully completed a second round of reconstructive surgery on the skull of a baby suffering from a rare disorder that caused her head to nearly double in size.
The four-hour-long surgery on the skull of one-year-old Roona Begum was carried out at a hospital near New Delhi where last month surgeons drained fluid from the youngster’s head in a life-saving operation.
“Today’s surgery was the biggest one so far in terms of remodelling her head. I think it went pretty well,” neurosurgeon Sandeep Vaishya said.
Roona was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that causes cerebrospinal fluid to build up in the brain. Her condition had caused her head to swell to a circumference of 94 centimetres, putting pressure on her brain and making it impossible for her to sit upright or crawl.
Roona’s head had shrunk to about 60 centimetres after procedures conducted in May and doctors expect it to shrink further after yesterday’s operation.
Plastic surgeon Rashmi Taneja, who worked alongside Vaishya on the surgery, said she had never before come across such a case.
“When we first cut open her head, all you saw were these fragments of bone floating over a fluid-filled sac. It’s one of the most challenging cases I have seen,” Taneja said.
Roona’s right and left skull bones were some 7.6 centimetres apart. The doctors drained fluid from the tissues inside, causing them to collapse and shrink. The surgeons then drilled tiny holes into her bones, pulled them close and stitched them together, ensuring the tissues inside were completely covered by bone fragments.
“My main worry is to do with the risk of infection, which we will have to watch out for. At the moment, we don’t foresee the need for further surgery,” Vaishya said.
Two Norwegian college students have started an online campaign that has raised $57,000 to help Roona and her poor family and fund any future aftercare.
AFP
