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Iraqi girl has successful brain surgery

ABU DHABI - Zainab Hussam Hamid, a 19-year-old Iraqi girl successfully underwent a critical brain surgery on Monday at Shaikh Khalifa Medical Centre (SKMC), which removed a (5x6cm) benign tumour that was compressing the brainstem.

The 12-hour-long aggressive surgery brought back hope to the teenager, who had been told earlier by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's special neurosurgeon that her case was incurable.

The patient, who was transferred to SKMC from the Zayed Military Hospital three weeks ago is one of the second batch of five critically sick patients who were airlifted from the war-torn Iraqi town of Mosul by the UAE Red Crescent (RCS) in collaboration with the UAE Armed Forces and the General Authority for Health Services (GHAS) for treatment at Abu Dhabi hospitals.

Speaking to Khaleej Times yesterday, Dr Dominic Venne, Head of the Division of Neurosurgery at the SKMC, said Miss Hamid was diagnosed with cerebellar tumour that caused a steady neurological deterioration, which restricted her movement, made her speechless and weakened the left side of her body.

The tumour grew in size and extended to the brainstem, which is considered as a no man's land and is the control centre for thoughts, emotions and other physical functions, said Dr Venne.

"We carried out an initial surgery two weeks ago in order to determine the kind of tumour, which we diagnosed as benign. If left untreated the tumour would have resulted in death as unlike most benign tumours found elsewhere in the body, such tumours of the brain result in fatality," he said.

"The basic goal of the operation, was to reduce the tumour to a small volume in order to stop it from pressing the brain. Assisted by the state-of-the-art neuro-navigation system, we were able to localise the tumour. We then carried out microsurgery to progress inside the tumour and remove it. We have succeeded in removing a large portion of the tumour that posed a big threat to the life of the patient," said Dr Venne.

If left without effective treatment, the brain tumour would have caused death within two years, he said.

Dr Venne said that the operation was very successful and the patient was in good health though the success rate for most brain tumours was significantly lower than that for most other types of cancer.

Such operations usually have serious complications like temporary or permanent neurological deficit and the patient might even die during or after the surgery, said Dr Venne.

In Miss Hamid's case we were able to overcome the grave complications that were expected to appear following the surgery, he added.

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