The disease caused severe and prolonged seizures in the child, which threatened her life. The rare and complex operation was performed by specialists of the St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv.
Little Elsie, as the girl was called, was born in Kovel. The birth was premature – at the 31st week. She spent the first fourteen days of her life in intensive care. Later, Elsie’s mother noticed that her newborn baby began to tremble as if afraid of something, and then cry profusely and turn blue. The woman sought medical help.
After the examination, the doctors stated: these are convulsions. And later, MRI confirmed the girl’s focal cortical dysplasia of part of one hemisphere. This is a congenital anomaly of a large part of the cerebral hemisphere, which provoked convulsions in the child. Since then – months of stays in hospitals in Volyn and a series of consultations in Kyiv. No medication prevented the attacks. In addition, the child did not develop at all.
Little Elsie had convulsions dozens of times and lasted as long as 20 minutes. Each such attack could be fatal for the child. So the girl’s parents continued to look for specialists who would help their daughter. They found such in Lviv, in the St. Nicholas Hospital.
After an examination and a series of examinations, the head of the neurosurgery department Mykhailo Lovga and a team of epileptologists led by Maria Pavlyuk decided to operate on the girl as soon as possible. Because each convulsion could really be the last. And although surgical interventions in cases of epilepsy have so far been carried out only for children from two years old, they have undertaken the operation. Because it was the only chance for salvation for the girl.
Neurosurgeons performed on Elsie one of the very rare interventions in children – anterior quadrantan disconnection. In simple words: the zone in the right hemisphere of the brain, from which the pathological impulses came, was disconnected from both hemispheres, while preserving as much as possible the zone responsible for movements – so that these abnormal impulses do not spread to the rest of the organ.
The intervention was successful. And the MRI results show that the neurosurgeons did a brilliant job. They completely disconnected the pathological zone. Elsie was relieved after the operation. Although the girl may still have occasional convulsions for some time, she is recovering. The baby became more lively and began to smile. But the most important thing is that now the girl will develop. After all, before, every attack of convulsions inhibited her development. Rehabilitation specialists are currently working with the girl. And there are already successes: at 8 months, Elsie raised her left hand for the first time.