Week #3 (Nerymar Ortiz Otero): Nice Brain Tumor and Yellow Babies!

          During my second week, I could spend time in the OR, the Clinic and in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).  In the OR, I could to see surgeries to resect meningioma and pituitary adenomas. Also, I could make follow-up for patients with conditions such as: hydrocephalus and brain tumor. In this part, I was with the Dr. Schwartz observing if these conditions come back again or not. On another hand, I was spending time in NICU seeing premature babies with multiple conditions and with recovery process from different surgeries.

          One the most interesting case in the OR was the surgery to resect a meningioma. The surgery was a craniotomy of the left temporal lobe to resect a meningioma that was localized very close to the head surface. The meningioma is a tumor that grow slowly and probably it has could be growing by more of ten years. The surgery consisted in open the skull where is the left temporal lobe. There is muscle that needs be removed first to can access to the tumor. Then they used a 3-D MRI to find the meningioma. To resect it, they cut the blood vessels that were connecting the tumor to the brain. The meningioma was very agglomerated that when they took off it, this seems like a ball. They took off it in one shot (whole tumor at the same time). This experience was amazing for me, see how they could take the tumor easily and how is the appearance of it. Next day, the patient was feeling good with a little swelling in the part where is the incision. This kind of symptoms post surgery is very common in craniotomies.

          In addition, another interesting case was a premature newborn in the NICU. The baby born with a severe hemolytic disease. The hemolytic disease is a condition that consists in low amount of red blood cells because these are broken down quickly. When the red blood cells are broken, these produce bilirubin and it can accumulate in the blood causing hyperbilirubinema. When high bilirubin concentration is in the blood, it can  cause a yellow appearance in the babies. Therefore, an appropriated treatment to this baby was a phototherapy. This consists in put the newborn under light to decrease the amount of bilirubin. The light helps to convert bilirubin in a compound that can be eliminated by urine. This case was really interesting for me because it was the first time that I saw a baby inside of the incubator with a bright green light. I was curious about the function of the light in the baby. But the resident students explained that it was a treatment. I did not expect that the light can be used to treat a anemia.