Surgery saves life of quadragenarian

Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, April 17

A 45-year-old woman suffering from aneurysm arising from a cavernous segment of right internal carotid artery (ballooning of artery) was treated successfully with endovascular neurosurgery at Ivy Hospital recently.

The patient from Bathinda was having severe headache and drooping right eyelid. During an MRI scan, a 2.5 cm aneurysm was discovered in her right internal carotid artery, which was causing her these ailments.

Earlier, such discomforts were treated with an open surgery, but Dr Vineet Saggar, Head of Neuro-interventional and Endovascular Neurosurgery, is successfully treating such patients with an endovascular neurosurgery from the past five years at the hospital.

Giving information, Dr Saggar said in that technique a catheter through the femoral artery is passed up to aneurysm, which is then sealed with coils. Nowadays, flow divertor or stent-assisted coiling is used to treat such aneurysms, he said.

It was a complicated case as the affected artery of the patient was in bad shape and it was difficult to place a flow divertor or stent in it owing to high chances of them getting blocked, he said.

Dr Saggar further said the affected artery was blocked following a balloon occlusion test to check any adverse effect of artery occlusion on the patient. If a patient experiences no abnormality on the test, then the artery is blocked.

He said brain stroke patients could also be treated using that procedure. “If a patient suffering from stroke is brought to the hospital within four to five hours of a stroke, the affected area can be opened by mechanical thrombectomy and the patient’s life can be saved,” he said.