Teenage boy who complained of headaches shocked doctors with something much worse

Teenage boy who complained of headaches shocked doctors with something much worse

If we needed concrete proof of the fantastic progress of medicine over the years, this is it. In India, doctors have indeed saved a young boy’s life by performing extremely complex surgery. And what a surgery: they had to remove an enormous cyst from the boy’s head. The meticulous surgery was a success.

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The shocking size of the cyst

The 14-year-old boy had been complaining about headaches and vomiting for some time. Far from a simple hangover, the young man actually had a fist-sized cyst located inside his skull! One can only wonder how his brain was able to resist such a protuberance.

Taken straight to the hospital for an emergency MRI, the scan revealed the presence of the gigantic cyst. After analysis, doctors diagnosed the teenager with an echinococcal disease. A disturbing disease, to say the least.

Echinococcosis: an explanation

Indeed, this disease comes from a parasite, a tapeworm of the genus 'echinococcus'. The doctors then resorted to a craniotomy, they drilled a small hole inside his skull and removed the cyst.

This very complex operation was successfully carried out by the surgeons. They delicately separated the cyst from the brain, trying not to take out a piece of grey matter along with the abscess.

A 14-year-old boy who lived on a farm presented with episodic headaches associated with vomiting. MRI showed a large, multiloculated cyst in the brain, and a craniotomy (shown in a video) was performed to excise it.

A successful operation!

Fortunately, the operation went perfectly. The young boy was able to return to school and resume his activities as normal after a two-week recovery period.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than one million people are affected by echinococcosis in the world. Carried by certain animals such as dogs, the tapeworm can transmit this parasitic disease to humans, either by ingesting parasite eggs present on food or in contaminated water.

A parasite transported by certain animals

As WHO explains on its website, we can also contract this disease 'after direct contact with animal hosts'. Knowing that the cysts produced by this parasite develop slowly in the body, it is necessary that they reach a certain growth before developing symptoms likely to alert us.

Infected individuals may therefore be 'asymptomatic' for many years. Eventually, they will experience vomiting and coughing due to the growth of the abscess.

This article has been translated from Gentside FR.

Sources used:

The Sun: 'Shocking images show doctors remove cyst the size of a fist from teen’s brain'