Gigantic Egg Shaped Cyst Removed From A Woman's Brain

From puzzling bumps to bewildering bodily reactions, medical reports often provide unique insight into how the human body functions and how doctors solve medical mysteries. And they can often also be bizarre and unbelievable. For instance, recently, doctors from AIMS operated a woman's brain which contained an egg shaped gigantic cyst. There are a plethora of first-time medical cases being reported everyday in India and while some of them are believable, there are many that are beyond the understanding of common man.

Brain cysts located in the brain are not truly "brain tumors" because they do not form from the brain tissue itself. Although cysts can appear in a variety of locations within the brain. they are sometimes found in parts of the brain that control vital functions. Just like a cyst anywhere else in your body, a cyst in the brain is a tumor-like sphere filled with fluid much like a balloon filled with water. It may contain fluid, blood, tissue, or tumor cells.

In an unusual and challenging brain surgery, doctors from Asian Institute of Medical sciences situated in Faridabad successfully removed an 'egg-shaped' foreign object from the brain of 41-year-old Shanti Devi, a resident of Ballabhgarh, Haryana.

The woman was unable to stand or walk without support. Doctors advised a MRI for her head and she was diagnosed to be having a large hollow stone like cyst inside her brain. 'It had taken the shape of an egg whose external structure was hard. It was surrounded by the brain all over', said Dr Kamal Verma Director, Department of Neurosurgery. .

The investigation into the origin of cyst revealed it was formed due to a parasitic infection. This happens when the patient comes in direct contact with animals infected by Echinococcus, a parasite, or because of eating unhygienic, contaminated food.

"The cyst was 8cm x 8cm in size and weighed around 200gm, and was found in the frontal portion of the brain, which controls our speech and limb movement. Both functions were impaired prior to the surgery but now there is significant improvement," said Dr Mukesh Pandey, senior neurosurgeon

To remove the cyst, they opened the skull of the patient. "We removed the cyst from the left side of the patient's brain without breaking or damaging the soft tissues of the vital organ," Pandey added.

Doctors said cysts caused by such an infection are usually soft and relatively small in size but this type of hard structure and size was not reported in medical literature earlier.

Another challenge for the surgeons in removing this cyst was to ensure it did not burst, as it contained thousands of parasites and toxic fluids, which if leaked out into the brain, could have caused severe reactions or run the risk of forming more cysts that could have killed the patient eventually.

The patient's husband is a truck driver in a transportation company. "After I was told about my wife's condition, I thought her survival would be difficult. But now I am extremely thankful to the doctors for her successful operation," said the patient's husband, Mintlal Yadav.

They received financial support from the hospital as well as the manager of the transportation company Yadav has been working in.

"My mother was unable to talk to me or recognize me earlier, but after the operation, she can see everything clearly," said the couple's 15-year-old son.

According to the doctor, the patient took couple of weeks to recover and now is fit to do her daily chores. "Shanti can carry out her daily chores smoothly and has no problems with her speech now. She thanked AIMS for giving her a new life," said one of the doctors.