MGM Healthcare, a multispecialty quaternary care hospital in the heart of Chennai, today announced the successful completion of brain bypass surgery on a 59-year-old NRI from Bahrain. The surgery was performed by Dr. Roopesh Kumar, Director of Neurosurgery, Institute of Neurosurgery, MGM Healthcare, and the team. The patient had the complication of low blood platelets and Chronic Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) which is a rare autoimmune disorder, in which a person’s blood doesn’t clot properly.
The patient Mr. Mohammed Yusuf (name changed) was diagnosed with severe Chronic Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). ITP is a rare autoimmune disorder that primarily affects the blood’s ability to clot due to low platelet counts. Platelets are cell fragments that are in found in blood which helps in the blood clotting process. When their numbers drop significantly, it may lead to excessive bleeding and bruising, which are some of the symptoms of ITP.
The patient had symptoms of stroke and visited a healthcare center in Bahrain and subsequently traveled to India and consulted a hospital in Mangalore. The patient continued to suffer mild stroke in his brain during the hospital visit. He underwent treatment at a private hospital in Udupi, where doctors identified that one of the major blood vessels in the brain was significantly narrow, leading to decreased blood flow to the right side of the brain, and referred him to a higher center due to the huge risk involved.
Mr. Yusuf was then referred and immediately rushed to MGM Healthcare’s emergency with a stroke symptom and the left side of his body was giving up and his limbs started to weaken. To make matters worse, the blood platelet count started decreasing from 80,000 platelets to 20,000 platelets. Since, his blood platelet count was very low, performing any procedure on these patients has a high-risk. On admission, Dr. Roopesh and Dr Gopinathan M, Consultant, Hematologist decided to administer medicines to quickly increase his blood platelet counts. From 20,000 platelets, the count was brought to 80,000 which gave the doctors some hope for his surgery. Dr. Roopesh and team took up the challenge of performing a brain bypass surgery (an intricate and complex procedure that involves rerouting blood flow to the brain to bypass blocked or damaged blood vessels) on an emergency basis.
The surgery was performed by Dr. Roopesh Kumar, Director of Neurosurgery, Institute of Neurosurgery, MGM Healthcare and team. The surgery took 5 hours to complete. The doctors continued various measures to maintain the blood platelets in post-op- period, since the low blood platelets can increase the risk of bleeding in the surgical site.
Sharing his thoughts on the procedure, Dr. Roopesh Kumar said, “This is one of the rarest surgeries that we have performed at MGM Healthcare. The patient having a severe case of ITP posed a big challenge in performing the brain bypass surgery. But thanks to the exceptional neurosurgical team that MGM Healthcare has today, we can offer patients the best care and cure. We are happy that Mr. Yusuf has completely recovered.”
“We are very happy about being referred to MGM Healthcare. While the team of doctors and nurses were giving me a new lease of life, they also hand-held us throughout these difficult times reassuring us continuously that everything would be fine. This care is something that we will cherish all our lives,” said, Mr. Yusuf.
