14 DAY TRIAL // A baby girl in Olathe, Kansas risked dying after developing an olive-sized aneurysm and starting to bleed in her brain. Luckily, the doctors in charge of overseeing her case eventually managed to save her life with the help of superglue.
When taken to the hospital about a week ago, Ashlyn Julia was feeling tired. She was also vomiting, and her parents were unable to figure out what was wrong with her.
Tests revealed that an aneurysm the size of an olive had formed inside the infant's brain.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Koji Ebersole says that, because such aneurysms typically take years to develop, they are extremely rare in children.
As a result, doctors more often than not lack surgical tools small enough to allow them to successfully operate on a child having one such aneurysm.
To treat Ashlyn Julia's condition, doctors had to figure out a way of halting the bleeding inside her brain without actually opening up her skull. This eliminated the risks associated with open surgery.
The Examiner reports that, to reach the girl's aneurysm, doctors inserted a small catheter inside one of her hip blood vessels.
Once inside her body, the catheter was carefully manipulated and made to reach the aneurysm.
The same source informs us that, with the help of this catheter, specialists managed to seal the leaking blood vessel from the inside out using nothing but surgical superglue that was deposited inside it.
“It's literally the same compound as the superglue you'd find in the store,” neurosurgeon Dr. Koji Ebersole told the press when asked to comment on this innovative procedure.
By the looks of it, it only took about three quarters of an hour to halt the bleeding inside the infant's brain.
Ashlyn Julia is expected to make a full recovery in about six months' time, and specialists doubt that she will experience similar problems in the future.