Headlines
Hyderabad woman's brain tumour turns out to be 'evil twin'
Hyderabad
woman's brain tumour turns out to be 'evil twin'
By Arun
Kumar
Washington, April 24 An Indian computer science PhD student from
Hyderabad underwent brain surgery to find what she jokingly called her
"evil twin sister who's been torturing me for the past 26 years"
Doctors who performed brain surgery on Yamini Karanam, 26, in Los Angeles were
shocked to find that instead of a tumour, she had an embryonic twin in her
head, according to NBC.
Karanam, who was studying at Indiana University, was unaware of what was
happening in her head until she underwent a procedure designed to reach deep
into the brain to extract the tumour.
After waking up from the surgery, Karanam was surprised to learn of the
"teratoma"-her embryonic twin, a rarity in modern medicine, complete
with bone, hair and teeth.
"This is my second one, and I've probably taken out 7,000 or 8,000 brain
tumours," said Dr. Hrayr Shahinian at the Skullbase Institute in Los
Angeles, who performed the operation.
It was only last September that Karanam realised something wasn't registering
in her mind as she was experiencing trouble comprehending things she read.
"Problems with reading comprehension, listening comprehension. If a couple
people were talking in a room, I wouldn't understand what was happening,"
she was quoted as saying.
What became more frustrating for Karanam was that her doctors would contradict
each other regarding the source of the problem, NBC said.
"The neurologist would say the neurosurgeon is not being practical in your
case," Karanam said.
"And the neurosurgeon would say the neurologist is not being optimistic in
your case. And I'm like, could someone be educated about this?"
Her own research led her to Shahinian who has developed a minimally-invasive
way of reaching deep into the brain to extract tumours.
"Unlike traditional brain surgery where you open the skull and use metal
retractors and you bring a microscope to see in the depths of the brain, what
we're doing is keyhole surgery," he was quoted as saying.
The method uses fibre-optic technology with digital imagery. A half-inch
incision into the brain allows for an endoscope to reach in and slowly and very
delicately chisel away at the tumour.
Shahinian said before he invented his technique, the only option to remove this
type of tumour would have been surgery that included removing half of the
skull.