Surgeons at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, faculty of medical sciences of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) here, have successfully conducted a surgery on a four-year-old boy suffering from nasal encephalocoeles, a rare type of birth defect affecting the brain with the lower part of the brain herniating into the nose.

The baby’s parents had brought him to the hospital as he complained of partial difficulty in breathing on the right nostril, vomiting and loss of smell, Prof. (Dr.) Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, eminent neurosurgeon, who led the surgical team, told newspersons on Thursday.

Investigations revealed that a portion of the baby’s brain had protruded into the nasal passage on the right side through an opening in the skull which could be visible from outside, Prof. (Dr.) Mahapatra, presently Principal Advisor (Health Sciences) at SOA and former Director of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, said.

“Such instances are rare, about one in 300,000 live births, and around 140 such surgeries have been done at AIIMS, New Delhi, over the last 52 years,” he said.

Surgery, which was done early this week after proper diagnosis and scanning, took around three and half hours, he said adding “advances in technology have made things easier today as the same operation took 10 to 12 hours in the 1960s and 70s.”

The baby and his father were present during the news conference.

The portion of the brain which protruded into the nasal cavity through the opening in the skull had become non-functional and had to be removed, Prof. Mahapatra, who was Vice-Chancellor of SOA till recently, said.

“We have closed the hole and the baby has recovered well,” he said.

Prof. (Dr.) Pusparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, who was present, said such surgeries were being conducted in the hospital with the diagnosis, initial care, surgery and convalescence of the patient involving different departments of neurosurgery, plastic surgery, ENT and anesthesia available under one roof.

The entire treatment of the baby was taken up under the state-sponsored Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY), he said.

Dr. Soumya Ranjan Das, Head of Department of ENT, Dr. Soubhagya Panigrahy and Dr. Ram Chandra Deo, both Professors of Neurosurgery, Dr. Satya Bhushan Senapati, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Dr. Abhijit Acharya, M Ch and Dr. Rajiv Lochan Samal, Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology were present at the press conference.