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International Physician Update
| MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING |
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| January 2005 |
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Brainstem Tumors? There’s Always Room for Jallo
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George Jallo checks the light on an endoscope, which he uses
to remove brainstem tumors. |
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Do you think Molly has a limp?” Kody Taylor asked her husband,Gary, as they watched their three-year-old walking to the car. “Nah, it’s just the way she walks.” But then, in the way things can snowball, a sprained ankle led to an orthopedist who suggested Molly have an MRI to rule out mild cerebral palsy.
That week the South Carolina couple learned their daughter had, instead, a brainstem tumor,possibly a pontine glioma, a usually inoperable cancer. Talks with the neurologist and a fevered Internet search led the Taylors to meet with pediatric neurosurgeon George Jallo.
“Brainstem tumors aren’t common in children, and they’re not something you want to see. They’re delicate, intricate growths,” Jallo says. “Many consider them inoperable, even when benign, because of the real estate they’re in.”
The brainstem holds centers of autonomic function like breathing and heartbeat. But, in Molly’s case, Jallo was fairly sure her tumor was not malignant, despite what the Taylors had heard, and that he could tackle it. He presented her work-up before Hopkins’ tumor board, and the operation, though risky, got a green light.
Fortunately, Jallo is expert in minimally invasive endoscopic brain surgery for children,having trained under the surgeon who pioneered the procedure. Though he’s relatively new to Hopkins, Jallo has more than 100 such surgeries to his credit—he did about one a week in his previous position. Now he’s the only pediatric neurosurgeon in the Hopkins area to tackle such tumors endoscopically.
For Molly, he made a small opening in her skull last October, gently feeding in the laser and necessary surgical tools. The prune-size tumor was teased free, and, to everyone’s relief, was definitely a lowgrade pilocytic astrocytoma, a benign growth. Now, Molly’s getting physical therapy for temporary arm weakness, but, says Jallo, “she should be right as rain.”
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