A four- year-old Uzbek child suffering from a deadly brain tumor visited India to undergo a successful, but complicated surgery after remaining untreated at hospitals in Germany and Russia.

Given the intensive double surgeries that required absolute precision, Dr. (Prof) V.S Mehta, Chairman Neurosciences at Paras Hospitals, Gurgaon, and his team eliminated the double-sided tumor. A leading neurosurgery team of Delhi NCR successfully treated a complicated brain tumor of a four-year-old child from Uzbekistan. The neurosurgeons at Paras Hospitals, Gurgaon under the guidance of Dr. (Prof.) VS Mehta, Chairman Neurosciences, Paras Healthcare, Paras Gurugram, performed surgical intervention using the latest image-guided brain tumor technology.

In the month of April last year, the four-year-old girl fainted in her kindergarten class after suffering from a right side paralysis. The brain tumor was detected by the doctors in Tashkent. In search of optimum treatment for their little daughter, the parents met doctors at Russia and Germany but were not able to attain any definitive solution, before they came to India for treatment. In India, they also visited many private hospitals and were advised various treatments including chemotherapy and radiotherapy but were against the suggestion of surgery. The parents chose to undergo radiotherapy at a private hospital in India. The child, however, continued to deteriorate after radiotherapy.

In search of a definitive treatment for their daughter, the parents met Dr. (Prof.) V.S Mehta, Chairman Neurosciences, Paras Healthcare and their team from Paras Hospitals, Gurgaon, where they advised surgery and after several discussions and counselling, the parents agreed to a surgery.

Dr.(Prof.) V.S Mehta, Chairman Neurosciences, Paras Healthcare, said, "It was a rare case, brain stem glioma and requires delicate analysis of the situation. After diagnosis, the child had two separate tumors in the brain stem. We concluded that a double surgery was the only option. We initially removed the right side tumor and after three months Arnella had to be operated again to remove the tumor situated on the left side of the brain stem. The case was critical and has not been performed in India that often. Biopsy of the tumor was also favorable to the child and is likely to have a good long-term prognosis."

The brainstem is the posterior part of the brain, adjoining and structurally continuous with the spinal cord. Though small, this is an extremely important part of the brain as it controls the flow of messages between the brain and the rest of the body, and it also controls basic body functions such as breathing, swallowing, heart rate, blood pressure, consciousness, and whether one is awake or sleepy. As all the nerves going to the body passes through this small structure, even fraction of millimeter injury can produce major neurological deficits.

A brainstem glioma is a cancerous tumor in the brainstem. Around 75% are diagnosed in children and young adults under the age of 20 but have been known to affect older adults as well. This tumor is not operated upon by most neurosurgeons in the world and only selected neurosurgeons operate on selected cases of the brain stem. Dr. Mehta is one of the neurosurgeons who has a vast experience of operating brain stem in the world.

India is globally becoming famous for providing quality treatment, and yet again, another parents' search across continents was happily addressed by the doctors in India.