Baby born with part of his brain visible saved by doctors in Mumbai

A baby born with a rare skull defect was successfully operated on by doctors in a Mumbai hospital on Thursday.

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A baby born with a rare skull defect was successfully operated on by doctors in a Mumbai hospital on Thursday.

The five-day-old was born to Afreen Khan and Sanaulla Khan, hailing from Tamil Nadu. The couple delivered the child in a private nursing home in Andheri east last December. But their happiness lasted for only a short amount of time as they got to know that their infant was suffering from aplasia cutis congenita’ – a condition where the baby’s scalp skin and skull bones were not fully developed in the central area of the head. As a result, the underlying areas of the brain and its covering are visible.

To repair this condition, the infant had to undergo a challenging scalp rotation and advancement flaps when he was barely 100 hours old.

Reportedly, the newborn was brought to the Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital in early January and admitted to the neonatal ICU. There he was taken care of by Dr. Nilesh Satbhai, the hospital’s Consultant Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon.

Dr. Nilesh and his team took all emergency resuscitative measures and the neurosurgery and plastic surgery teams conducted a planned treatment to treat the baby.

According to the surgeon, the baby boy had a very rare deformity ‘aplasia cutis congenita’, and a large portion of the vital areas of the brain was left exposed. He further described the condition as a rare anomaly in which part of the scalp skin along with the skull bones is not developed, and the protective layers of the skull covering the brain are not formed.

“The skin, soft tissue, and bones over the vertex of the skull were absent, and the dura mater covering the brain was exposed and the problem was identified immediately after birth,” said Dr. Nilesh. He also mentioned that there was a high chance of infection or meningitis developing in such a situation. Also, the large blood vessels in the brain could have gotten infected, or ruptured, leading to bleeding and complications. “We operated on the child for four hours on the 5th day of his life,” said the doctor.

Meanwhile, the operation was successful, and after 14 days in the ICU, the boy was finally discharged. The wounds are healing as well.

Also Read: Baby Born With ‘Permanent Smile’!

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