Madagascar MP gets his vision back, thanks to Bengaluru doctors

Bengaluru: A Member of the Parliament from Madagascar is full of praise for a city doctor, who has helped him get his vision back. While in his country, his vision had grown impaired and seeing the condition progress rapidly over a month, his doctors there referred him to Apollo Hospitals in Bengaluru. The doctors here found he was suffering from a tumour of the pituitary gland, close to the optic nerve in the brain, which was causing the progressive loss of vision.

A highly advanced surgery later, Mr Rasolonjatovo Honore is a happy man today. "I am very happy with the treatment here. I can see almost as much as

I did before I  developed the tumour," he says with satisfaction.The doctors at Apollo Hospitals performed a Transnasal Transpenoidal Endoscopic surgery to remove the tumour. "Pituitary tumors arise from the pituitary gland, which is the master controller of all the hormones in the human body. 

These tumors are located near the optic nerves and  lead to gradual loss of vision. The other symptoms are hormone deficiency and double vision.  If not treated on time, these tumors can cause total blindness," explains Dr Arun L Naik, a neurosurgeon who along with Dr Pradeep Hosamani, an ENT and skull base surgeon, performed the endoscopic surgery on the 60-year-old MP.

"These tumours once needed surgery through the brain. This method was highly invasive and came with the risk of many complications such as paralysis and developing a squint. But now they can be removed through the nose with a 6-mm endoscope. It is very precise, safe, minimally invasive and available only in advanced centres. This procedure is used to remove complex tumours from the underside and inside of the brain," says Dr Naik.

Being a scarless procedure , the recovery is very rapid unlike in the case of traditional brain surgery, according to him.