Why 5-Year-Old Indian Girl Underwent Critical 'Brain Awake' Surgery

A craniotomy performed in Delhi AIIMS on a 5-year-old girl made history as it was the first brain awake surgery performed on the youngest-ever individual globally. Akshita Yadav from Greater Noida with a history of seizures and a brain tumour bravely underwent the three-hour-long surgery.

A brain awake surgery is a critical surgery performed for neurologically complicated conditions such as brain tumors and epileptic seizures keeping the patient conscious while performing the surgery. Yadav is said to have quickly identified the nation's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photo during her surgery. 

5-Year-Old World's Youngest To Undergo Brain Awake Surgery

On January 4, Surgeons at Delhi AIIMS Hospital successfully performed a brain awake surgery on a 5-year-old girl named Akshita Yadav who they claim is the youngest individual who has undergone such a procedure. The girl tabled a history of experiencing seizures. An MRI showed she had a tumour in her left brain adjacent to speech/language skills which needed urgent treatment.

An "awake craniotomy" surgery was performed using the Conscious Sedation Technique on the young patient to remove the tumour from the left perisylvian intraaxial brain. 

The patient and her parents were consulted along with long discussions held with concerned doctors to ensure that the family were well-counselled before such a complicated procedure. The young patient underwent the 3-hour-long surgery with excellent patience and cooperation throughout and is in stable condition in the postoperative period after the pioneering surgery. 

The first standard student was shown some common pictures of animals and objects and was given some language tasks and sensorimotor assignments before and during the surgery, with cortical mapping techniques through which the "eloquent brain" could be preserved and risks of brain damage could be avoided. 

The tumour was successfully removed by a team of neurosurgeons as their young patient remained conscious and the doctors inside the OP said that Akshita was very quick to identify Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a picture shown to her during her surgery as she remained conscious. 

While Akshita's journey is remarkable it is important to note that Akshita's case might have been unique within her specific context, but awake surgery has been performed for many years on both adults and children for various procedures and this specific type of surgery is not universally applicable, so there could be younger children who underwent different types of awake surgeries for other medical conditions as well.