WUHAN: A highly difficult surgery of brainstem tumor for a six-year-old Pakistani boy was successfully conducted recently by the Chinese doctors at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University (ZNWU), China.
The boy was diagnosed with brainstem tumor several months ago. He needed a surgery as soon as possible.
However, brainstem tumor surgery remains the most challenging operations in neurosurgery. It demands meticulous preoperative evaluation, reasonable surgical plan and experienced surgical team. None is dispensable. However, his surgery was too complicated to be performed in Pakistan.
His father Muhammad Arshad, a teacher of a university in Islamabad, Pakistan, turned his eyes to China where he had studied and got his doctoral degree on cognitive science at Tsinghua University, Beijing. Arshad knows a lot about Chinese medical and healthcare capability and believes in the Chinese doctors’ techniques and skills. His two Chinese friends recommended him professor Chen Jincao, a top expert on neurosurgery and also chief physician of ZNWU, one hospital of the first echelons in neurosurgery.
Arshad soon decided to take his son and wife fly to Wuhan China, putting his hope in professor Chen. On May 11, Arshad Jr. was admitted to ZNWU, after the quarantine due to COVID-19. Soon, Professor Chen called for a consultation with experts from about ten departments including pediatrics, oncology and chemoradiotherapy departments to discuss the best treatment plan for Arshad Jr. The test results of Arshad Jr. came out; however, it was not very good.
“The tumor has invaded 80 percent of the brainstem, which is rare,” said Professor Chen. “It means the following surgery will be highly difficult and it also presents a tough challenge to the medical team,” Chen added. Based on the consultation and thorough argumentation, Chen and his team decided to make a “three in one” surgery for Arshad Jr., which means to perform brainstem lesion resection, decompressive craniectomy and lateral ventricle intraperitoneal shunt synchronously. Knowing the decision, Arshad said, “Professor Chen, I trust you completely. Just go ahead. I support the team’s decision.”
Arshad said he once considered performing the surgery to the USA and the European countries. However, when studying in China, he observed that the Chinese doctors had a large number of outpatient patients and surgeries. –Agencies
