A unique operation was performed at the Children’s Hospital

For the first time in the history of the Children’s Hospital, a unique operation was performed, i. e. a hemispherectomy or cerebral hemisphere separation, whose goal is to prevent a deterioration in the state of health of an epilepsy patient. The operation was performed with the financial support of the Children’s Hospital Foundation.

“The operation was performed on a child just under two years of age, one of whose cerebral hemispheres is permanently damaged and causes epilepsy, moreover hampering the healthy cerebral hemisphere from functioning normally. In order for the child’s state of health to improve, it was necessary to separate the diseased cerebral hemisphere from the healthy one, thus preventing epileptic fits and facilitating improvements in the functioning of the healthy cerebral hemisphere,” explains children’s neurologist Dr. Jurģis Strautmanis, who stressed that this is one of the most complicated operations in neurosurgery. Hemispherectomy operations are a very form of operation, which it is necessary to perform once every two years at the most. It is vital that such operations are performed while the child is still at an early age.

The unique operation was performed by BCUH neurosurgeon Wehbe Bassel Yaacoub, Professor Bertil Rydenhag (Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg), anesthesiologist – reanimatologist Aleksejs Mihejevs, anesthesia nurse Aija Klekmane and operation nurses Karīna Brunovska and Egita Kvetkovska.

More info about the Children’s Hospital, Member of Latvian Health Tourism Cluster at: https://www.bkus.lv/old/eng