The doctors at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh have claimed to save the life of a patient by successfully treating brain aneurysm using the most advanced endovascular technique. The use of this technique avoids major intracranial surgery.
A 50 year-old woman from Amroha, Uttar Pradesh who fell in the bathroom after experiencing a sudden and severe headache along with vomiting was treated with this technique. The consultant neurosurgeon of AIIMS Rishikesh Dr Jitender Chaturvedi, diagnosed that the cause of her brain haemorrhage was due to rupture of a brain aneurysm. The patient was thus treated using state-of-art minimally invasive technique called endovascular embolization. In it a thin tube is passed via an artery in the groin selectively to the brain and the ruptured aneurysm was closed by placing a soft coil. The woman has been discharged from the hospital after recovery.
The Director AIIMS, Rishikesh, Ravikant said that a neuro -endovascular unit has been established in the Institute. This unit with collaboration of existing neurosurgery and neurology departments will treat brain haemorrhage and brain stroke patients using this high end modern technology. He added that this treatment of brain haemorrhage with endovascular technique is included in the Ayushman Bharat Scheme.
The Associate Professor, Interventional Neuro-radiologist at AIIMS, Dr Sandeep Burathoki said that the treatment is like engineering inside a small artery. “The patients should be educated about the signs of rupture of the cerebral aneurysm and one should consult a neurosurgeon, if the headache is very severe and the patient is not responding to medications. The aneurysms are like balloons that swell in the cerebral artery that represent a weak point and can rupture due to sudden rise in blood pressure,’’ he said.