A local hospital has introduced a less invasive method to stop bleeding in the brain without opening the skull.
The procedure, known as coiling, allows the neurosurgeon to access the brain using a catheter inserted through a puncture in the groin or arm to stop, or prevent the bleeding.
The injury is usually caused by a brain aneurysm, the bulging of the weak area in the wall of an artery that supplies blood to the brain.
Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi now becomes the first in East Africa to offer the procedure, which has been used in developed countries since 1991.
Coiling is a much less invasive alternative to opening of the the skull. Aga Khan said they have have now successfully treated two patients: a Kenyan nurse and a European tourist.
Dr Edwin Mogere, an endovascular and skull base specialist at the hospital is the first Kenyan doctor to perform the procedure in the country. He cautioned that brain aneurysm is not widely known yet it’s the leading cause of fatal strokes in Kenya.
“Aneurysms affect about one per cent of the population in Kenya annually (about 400,000), but because most people with the condition do not have symptoms, they usually remain unaware that they suffer from it. About 4,000 of those with larger aneurysms will have ruptures. Only 500 of these are attended to in the six major hospitals in Kenya capable of handling the condition and the remaining 3,500 stay undiagnosed, or misdiagnosed,” he said.
Dr Mogere said if a patient is referred to a neurosurgeon with sudden severe headaches, nausea, or vomiting and fainting episodes, they will be sent for a CT scan or MRI which will show some specific area of bleeding in the brain.
Aga Khan said in a statement they apply coiling through a catheter insterted through the femoral artery in the groin area.
The surgeon usually inserts a hollow plastic tube into the artery and threads it through the body to the brain.
He then uses a guide wire to push a soft platinum wire through the catheter and into the aneurysm. The wire coils up inside the aneurysm, disrupts the blood flow and causes blood to clot. This clotting essentially seals off the aneurysm from the artery.