Artificial skull part implanted on youth in Kochi

KOCHI: A rare artificial skull implant surgery has been performed successfully on a youth at a hospital here. The youth, 24-year-old Ottappalam native Deepak Mohan, who met with a devastating road accident five years ago where he sustained severe head injury and multiple fractures, had undergone a major brain surgery with evacuation of a large clot and repair of his brain followed by repair of his fractures.

“He had a turbulent recovery path and was left with a grossly disfiguring complex skull defect (left fronto orbital temporozygomatic). Though few artificial moulds were tried to correct the defect it got infected and was rejected by his body,” said Dr Arun Oommen, associate consultant, Neurosurgery, VPS Lakeshore Hospital, who performed the surgery.

“It was a great challenge to correct the skull defect, which involved his face and eyes. We decided on a special type of skull bone implant called PEEK (Polyether Ether Ketone).With the help of special computer software, the defects were analyzed and the details were sent to the Specialized (Synthes Codman) laboratory in Switzerland for fabrication of the implant. Once the implant arrived, the patient was operated on for inserting it in place. The implant has provided the required geometry and accuracy to get apt skull and facial reconstruction,” Dr. Arun Oommen said.

PEEK was first used in 2011 and since then it is being used by neurosurgeons in different parts of the world and has been producing satisfactory results. “But it is not being used much in India due to the expense and the difficulty in getting the custom-made artificial skull as it has to be imported. But in future it may become a common surgery,” said Dr. Arun Oommen.