Dubai: Rashid Hospital doctors saved a 40-year-old Emirati patient who was suffering from a life-threatening brain aneurysm by conducting a highly complicated surgery.
Humaid Al Zaa’bi suffered from a severe and sudden headache while working out at the gym.
Dr Abdulla Qasim, neurosurgery consultant at Rashid Hospital explained: “A brain aneurysm is an abnormal dilation and widening of a blood vessel, which results from the weakening of the muscular walls of the vessels. Most often, the aneurysm is balloon shaped.”
The causes of brain aneurysm are unknown, but a range of factors may increase the risk. Risk factors that develop over time include: old age, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, head injury and blood infections, to name a few. Risk factors present at birth include inherited connective tissue disorders and cerebral arteriovenous malformation, to name a few.
Recounting his ordeal, Al Zaa’bi said that when his headache became stronger and did not subside with pain killers, he called an ambulance and was taken to the hospital where doctors carried did a CT scan and other diagnostic tests.
Dr Qasim said the CT scan confirmed that the patient had a brain aneurysms which required immediate surgical intervention.
He said that the medical team immediately conducted the surgery, which took around two hours, where they placed four artery mini-clips to restore the normal shape of the blood vessel and block the aneurysm from bleeding again. Rashid Hospital performs the largest number of brain aneurysm treatments in the UAE every year.
Dr Qasim revealed that the complicated and rare surgery was a success, adding that the team used an innovative method to determine the success of the surgery by injecting a fluorescent dye (ICG) to ensure that the blood was flowing smoothly in the patient’s brain vessels.
He added that Rashid Hospital is the only hospital that has adopted this innovative technique in the UAE. During surgery and under the microscopic visualisation, the blood vessels glow bright when the dye is injected. This confirms that the surgery is a success and the blood flow is normal.
“I am out of the hospital and feeling much better. I would like to thank all the staff at Rashid Hospital’s Neurosurgery Department from doctors to nurses to administrate staff. I would like to specially thank Dr Qasim and his team for the treatment and care I received,” concluded Al Zaa’bi.
