77-year-woman treated for brain tumour through nose

Mohali: Ivy Hospital, Mohali marked the World Brain Tumour Day on Tuesday with an announcement of successful treatment of a 77-yr old woman who was suffering from pituitary tumour. She was treated successfully without opening her skull through the nose using a transsphenoidal approach recently.

Dr Vineet Saggar, senior neurosurgeon at Ivy who performed the surgery informed that the woman was presented with loss of consciousness and altered sensorium of one-day duration in emergency. 

She was carefully evaluated and was found to be suffering from pituitary tumour with apoplexy (bleeding inside the tumor) which is an emergency and if left untreated can lead to visual loss and sometimes death of the patient, said Dr. Saggar.

The patient made a full recovery after surgery and was discharged without any problems.

Dr. Saggar informed that brain tumour surgeries are considered one of the most technically demanding procedures known in medical science. Traditionally brain tumour surgeries are done by opening the skull.  However, over the last few years, few selected surgeries of brain tumours are being done via the nose  without opening the skull, asserted Dr. Saggar who is trained in skull base surgeries and has done more than 100 such procedures.