SRINAGAR, JULY ,16 :
In keeping with its legacy of excellence the department of Neurosurgery SKIMS has achieved a milestone by successfully performing the first direct vascular bypass surgery between superficial temporal artery and middle cerebral artery (STA-MCA) in a patient with Moya-Moya disease.
Moya-Moya disease is a rare condition typically seen in East Asian populations, especially Japan, where arteries at the base of the brain become narrowed, leading to the formation of fragile blood vessels that resemble a “puff of smoke” (Moya-Moya in Japanese) on imaging. It reduces brain blood flow and increases stroke risk, especially in children. Symptoms include strokes or seizures and treatment usually involves surgery to improve the blood flow.
The surgical treatment for Moya-Moya disease is restricted to only a few centers in India. The surgical treatment of such patients made headlines in the past when such patients were treated by indirect vascularization techniques which included: Encephalo-Dura-Myo-Arterio-Synangiosis [EDMAS] with considerable success at SKIMS. However, the challenge with the present patient was that he was an adult and a candidate for the direct vascularization technique. The patient was incapacitated because of multiple strokes. Upon investigations, he was diagnosed to have this rare disease which demanded an intricate surgery on his blood vessels to augment blood circulation to the brain.
STA-MCA bypass surgery done for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir wherein a healthy blood vessel outside the brain (superficial temporal artery) is anastomosed with the diseased blood vessel (middle cerebral artery) in the brain, enabling immediate augmentation of cerebral perfusion was a complex procedure required in this patient. The surgical team was headed by Dr. Nayil Khursheed, Professor of Neurosurgery and included Dr Farooq Ahmad Ganie, Associate Professor of CVTS and Dr Zulfikar Ali, Additional Professor of Neuroanesthesia. The surgery lasted for 6-hrs and was completed successfully without complications. The intraoperative flow assessment confirmed excellent patency. The patient was discharged in a stable condition.
This advancement reflects an ongoing commitment to provide state-of-the-art neurovascular care in SKIMS, and also marks a step forward in expanding the scope of high-end surgical interventions available to our patients in the valley. SKIMS looks forward to continuing to push the frontiers of care. The department aims to provide educational videos for other neurosurgical centers of the valley.
Director SKIMS, Dr. (Prof) M Ashraf Ganie congratulated the team and the department of neurosurgery for this ground-breaking surgery which has put SKIMS on the surgical map of select centers where such complex procedures are done with excellent outcome.