SIMS Hospital doctors perform brain bypass on 42-year-old

For about four months, Manikandan Keshavan had been suffering from weakness in his left arm and leg. The senior security coordinator in Abu Dhabi visited a hospital there, and after a series of tests, doctors told him that he had blockages in his brain. He was put on medication, and doctors recommended he go to Japan for a surgery.

“About a month ago, I had just finished a meal and was walking when my arm and leg collapsed, and I fell. I became really scared then,” said the 42-year-old.

Friends recommended coming to Chennai, and earlier this month, Mr. Keshavan arrived at the SRM Institutes for Medical Science, Vadapalani, where doctors decided to perform a brain bypass surgery.

“The patient has diabetes and hypertension and is on medication for both. We found three blockages – a 99 per cent block at the base of the brain, a 50 per cent block inside the brain and a third one. These blocks were in the vessels supplying blood to the right side of the brain,” said Roopesh Kumar, senior consultant neurologist at the hospital.

The bypass, Dr. Kumar explained, is a technically challenging procedure that involves using a blood vessel running near the ear outside the brain, under the skin of the scalp, harvesting it and stitching it to a blood vessel running on the surface of the brain, after making a hole in the skull.

The procedure was successful, Dr. Kumar said, and the blood vessel to the right half of the brain improved.

“In the past few years, we have performed around 12 such procedures. These procedures are now possible mainly due to advancements made in the last decade,” said K.R. Suresh Bapu, senior consultant neurosurgeon at the hospital.

Mr. Keshavan is doing well now, doctors said, but has to control his diabetes and hypertension. Since the skull has an excellent source of blood supply, diverting of the vessel will not cause a problem as other blood vessels will compensate for it, Dr. Kumar said.