NEW DELHI: A 67-year-old patient who was suffering from very frequent mini-strokes underwent the “superficial temporal artery to the middle cerebral artery (STMC)” bypass surgery, a rare procedure to save life.
The
cerebral bypass surgery
is performed to restore, or “revascularise”, blood flow to the brain. The surgery, the brain’s equivalent to a
coronary bypass
in the
heart
, connects a
blood vessel
from outside the
brain
to a
vessel
inside it to reroute blood flow around a damaged or
blocked artery
.
The surgery was performed at Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh where the patient came in April. “When he had a number of such mini-strokes frequently in the past one month, his son brought him here. There was a stroke on the left side of the brain,” said Dr Shailesh Jain, principal consultant of Neuro and Spine Surgery, Max Super Specialty Hospital, Shalimar Bagh.
The MRI of brain, CT angiography and other investigations found that his left internal artery was totally blocked in the cervical neck area. “But there was a supply from the right side,” Dr Jain noted.
The doctor further noted that this was the prime reason why the patient was having haemodynamic recurrent mini-strokes. “We did a cerebral digital subtraction angiography, which showed that there was supply from the right side, but a delay in the supply to the left side from the right side. In brain, a delay of 4-5 seconds may develop mini-strokes. Our
brain
should get supply from both sides,” he said.
The patient was put on dual blood thinners for a week. But his condition didn’t improve and the surgery was planned, which was completed in six hours.
“We planned to bypass the superficial temporal artery and connect to the internal brain middle cerebral artery, so that the supply can get enhanced on the left side. There was an abundance of supply and he started living normal life from the second day after the surgery,” Dr Jain said.
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