Rare Brain Surgery to Treat Boy With Excessive Sex Hormones Conducted in Puducherry

Doctors at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) in Puducherry have conducted a rare brain surgery in a three-year old boy who had premature puberty.

The parents of the boy noticed abnormal changes in their son when he was one and a half years old. They found that his private parts started to grow in size, pimples began to form on his face, his voice became rough, his behavior was aggressive and he had abnormal hair growth. When he was taken to the doctors, they found the presence of abnormal tissue (hamartoma) in the hypothalamus which regulates all the hormones.

The doctors then decided to administer injections for three times every month and the vaccination was supposed to happen for 10 years. However his parents were unable to afford the injections as they were daily laborers and the doctors decided to perform a rare skull-base surgery and removed the abnormal tissue.

"The rare condition, which affects less than one in a million people, is termed precocious puberty. It can be completely cured by appropriate medical or surgical intervention if diagnosed early. Children with this condition attain puberty before eight years of age. For boys, it is less than nine years. The surgery lasted more than three hours. The patient responded well. It is a complex surgery as the abnormal tissue has to be removed without damaging the vital neurovascular structures surrounding it", Jipmer additional professor and head (neurosurgery) V R Roopesh Kumar said.

Source: Medindia