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To Minnie
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Minnie: I have not heard of him either. Dr. Al-mefty reminds me of Dr. Shahinian at the Skull Base Institute in that he specializes in surgery of the skull base. I had never heard of a doctor using that term until I read Dr. Shahinians stuff. Maybe it is because they both trained in the middle east and that specialty is offered. Basically they practice surgery in what used to be known as no mans land-the most difficult area of the body to operate. Many vital functions of the body come together at the center of the head-the corotid arteries, the optic nerves, the spinal cord and major nerves connected to the spinal cord, and then the pituitary in its protective little bony cup. In order to get there they used to only be able to come in from the top of the skull before other techniques like transphenoidal and fully endoscopic surgery became available. I saw the video of my surgery at Cedars. What I found so amazing is how much the tumor looked like everything else stuffed into the tiny space. I asked Dr. Shahinian how he could tell what was what. He said you can tell by feel. He said the tumor feels like a well baked potato and the organs are much softer. Doctors who do not have practice often remove the pituitary in error. Unfortunately I have heard of many such cases, one lives just a short distance from me. In fact, I talked to three brain surgeons before my surgery and they all pointed out their interpretation of what was pituitary and what was tumor based on the MRI. It was interesting to note that they all had a different opinion! In my case, once Shahinian got in there and removed what he thought was all of my tumor based on the MRI, he put in endoscopes with a different angle on them and found out, to his surprise, that there was a piece of the tumor that had grown out of the sella and was flat up against my brain on one side. They used a technique called the valsalvo manuever to help remove the last of my tumor. Dr. Shahinian told me that had he been using the transphenoidal technique that he had used (I think he said about 600 times) in the past, he would not have seen that piece. When I think of these things I can see some difficulty with the gamma knife option. Finally, I appreciate this site being brought to our attention. Dr. Al-mefty sounds like a pioneer much needed for brain tumor patients. |
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