NEUROSURGERY IN PREGNANCY - OUR EXPERIENCE

Volume : VII, Issue : V, May - 2018

Dr. C Ramasasamy, Dr. Mathiyash Arthur

Pregnant patients rarely present with neurosurgical emergencies, but can cause significant morbidity and mortality to the mother

and the foetus. Physiological changes of pregnancy in relevance to neurosurgery, effects of anaesthetic agents on the foetus, time

of presentation of the problem in accordance with the gestational age add to the complexity in decision making in managing the

patient. Urgent neurosurgical intervention in pregnancy is reserved for the management of malignancies, acute hydrocephalus,

and benign ain tumors associated with signs of impending herniation or progressive neurological deficit. Here in this paper we

illustrate our experience at our institution in treating three patients in their third trimester presenting with neurosurgical problems

during the years 2014–2016. First one, a case of headache and altered sensorium during third trimester of pregnancy, found to be

right parieto–occipital meningioma on evaluation, managed with right parieto–occipital parasagittal craniotomy and total excision

,Second, a case of antenatal seizures who on evaluation revealed left parietal lobe abscess, managed successfully with left parietooccipital

craniotomy and excision of abscess cavity, the third one, a case of headache and projectile vomiting ,evaluation revealed

right cerebellar hemangioblastoma, treated with vp shunt, followed later by suboccipital craniectomy excision. All the three

patients have been attended with meticulous neurosurgical and obstetric care on the same sitting.