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90-year-old successfully treated for brain tumour in Delhi hospital

90-year-old successfully treated for brain tumour in Delhi hospital
90 year old Narendra Kumar Kundu had a 5 cm big tumour in his brain ©Shutterstock

A team of doctors at a Delhi hospital recently successfully operated upon a 90-year-old who had a large (5 cm) tumour in his brain. The team performed a minimally invasive microscopic brain surgery.

Written by Editorial Team |Updated : January 8, 2019 4:30 PM IST

Narendra Kumar Kundu, 90, was admitted to Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, a couple of months ago, with acute onset of slurred speech and weakness in the right side of the body which was diagnosed as a paralytic attack. He also complained about the increased frequency of micturition with bed wetting for over 12 hours. The patient was subjected to an urgent MRI scan. Dr Sonal Gupta, Director and Head, Neurosurgery (Cranial), Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh says, "The MRI reports revealed a large brain tumour sitting on the left side of the brain. The brain tumour was suggestive of meningioma (benign brain tumour arising from the layer of the membrane covering the brain). The tumour with swelling was pressing the part of the brain controlling the power on the right side of the body and also pressing the speech centre in the brain. This likely caused a fit followed by a paralytic attack with slurred speech. The patient was given steroids and medications to suppress the swelling and to prevent fits. Thereafter, the patient underwent a 3-hour long brain surgery. For the surgery, the skull was reconstructed by putting back the bone flap and fixing it back with clamps, according to the doctor.

"The patient's age was the biggest challenge. We discussed the option of surgery and its risks versus conservative management with anticonvulsants with the family. It was decided that the patient should be evaluated by an anaesthetist and a cardiologist for risk assessment of the brain surgery and a call should be taken on the further course of surgery. As the patient had no co-morbidities, the family gave a go-ahead for the surgery. Despite his age, the patient responded very well to the treatment and was fully conscious within half an hour of surgery," the doctor explained. The patient has now fully recovered, with his speech back to normal and is no more in a paralysed state.

According to the patient, there is only a warrior wound (surgery mark) on the head which reminds him of the surgery.

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What is Meningiomas?

Meningiomas represent about a third of all primary brain tumours. Often benign, they tend to affect men and women between the ages of 40 and 70. It is extremely rare to see a meningioma causing symptoms for the first time at the age of 90 yrs. If you leave a meningioma untreated, it can grow in size and can cause persistent headaches, hearing or vision loss weakness and/or numbness and tingling on one side of the body, seizures, balance problems, and muscle weakness. The symptoms of a meningioma depend on the location and its size. A small tumour pressing the optic nerve can cause sight loss while a tumour located on the surface of the brain, can be quite large before you notice any symptoms.