Prof Ashok Mohapatra Conducts Rare Skull Surgery At SUM Hospital

Bhubaneswar: Expansile Cranioplasty, a surgical procedure undertaken to correct abnormal skull development in infants, has been successfully conducted at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here.

It is first such surgery to have been conducted in Odisha.

Renowned neurosurgeon Prof Ashok Mohapatra conducted the surgery on a seven-month-old baby suffering from a disorder known as Craniostenosis. The process is known as the Fronto-orbital advancement.

“Craniostenosis is a disorder in which there is early fusion of the sutures of the skull in childhood that leads to abnormally shaped head impairing the brain’s growth,” said Prof Mohapatra.

He led the team that conducted the complex separation of the conjoined twins from Odisha at AIIMS in New Delhi.

Prof Mohapatra is the Director (Medical Programmes) at SOA  University. The surgery of the baby was conducted two weeks ago. The baby recovered well and has been discharged from the hospital, said Mohapatra.

“The aim of the procedure was to expand the skull to create space for the brain to grow properly. The skull expands from 35 cm to 60 cm by the time the child turned five,” he said. If there was any abnormality in skull development, it would prevent the brain from growing properly, he added.

Such surgeries are not very common and around six to eight such procedures are conducted at the AIIMS, New Delhi, every year. There are barely 20-25 surgeons in the world who conduct this surgery, said Prof  Mohapatra.

He has conducted 300 to 350 such operations so far.