A neurosurgery workshop at a city hospital had a doctor operating the base of the skull of a 54-year-old man to remove a tumour.
The surgery, which lasted over 12 hours on Friday, was live-streamed for scores of junior neurosurgeons.
The workshop was organised by the Institute of Neurosciences Kolkata (IN-K) as part of its continuing medical education programme.
The challenge in skull base surgery is reaching the targeted areas with minimal exposure of the skull and minimal retraction of the brain. The goal is to reach and operate in these difficult areas with as little impact on the brain and nerves as possible.
The brain rests on the base of the skull. The 54-year-old man had a tumour in the skull base. “The condition is called cavernous sinus meningiomas. It refers to benign yet threatening tumours at the base of the skull. The delicate location makes surgical intervention extremely difficult,” said Amit Kumar Ghosh, consultant neurosurgeon at the IN-K.
“A person with this condition will have her neurological functions impaired. It can lead to partial paralysis. The movement of eyeballs will be almost impossible, leading to eventual loss of vision. Ultimately, the patient will slip into a coma. Left untreated, the condition can turn fatal. The patient was gradually losing vision. He could not move his eyeballs,” he said.
On Friday, the man was operated upon by Vinko V. Dolenc, professor of neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.
“The standard practice in India is to remove a part of the tumour. Experts like Dolenc remove the entire tumour so that radiation is not needed,” said Ghosh.
