Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre has successfully performed a highly specialised Neurosurgical operation on a spastic child.

A hospital release on January 7 said, the girl aged 13 years, was diagnosed to have Cerebral palsy soon after birth.
Typically, such children have stiffness in the arms and legs which make their movement difficult. Over the years, the child's legs became so stiff, that it was difficult to separate both her thighs and she was unable to sit cross-legged on the floor.

Her hips were turned to one side and the knees became permanently flexed, so did her ankles. The girl was practically wheelchair-bound and needed help for all her daily needs. The child’s father who works in TNEB and her mother who was a nurse tried all that they could including physiotherapy and medicines. However, her condition became worse.

At this stage, they met Dr K Visvanthan, Senior Consultant Neurosurgery at SRMC, who informed them about a specialized operation called “Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy” which could improve her condition and tightness. The surgery was performed under the New Health Insurance Scheme for Tamil Nadu Government so that there was little financial burden on the already stressed family.

The specialized surgery was done on December 28, 2018 using neuromonitoring to identify the motor and sensory roots coming down from the spinal cord. The sensory roots were stimulated and the pathological ones were cut under the operating microscope.

After surgery, she recovered fast and was discharged home in five days. The change in her leg stiffness was almost immediate and she was now able to sit cross-legged on the floor, the legs did not appear “knotted up” like before and the physiotherapy team was encouraged that it would be possible to build on this reduction in limb tone and improve her further.