America
Indian woman's brain tumour turns out to be 'evil twin'
By
Arun Kumar Washington, April 24
American doctors were
shocked to find that an Indian computer science PhD student from
Hyderabad who underwent brain surgery had an embryonic "evil twin"
instead of a tumour in her head. The 26-year-old Yamini Karanam had
jokingly called her "evil twin sister who's been torturing me for 26
years".
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.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])