A first-of-its-kind study published in the February issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics suggests endoscopic brain surgery, pioneered by surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has the potential to be safer and often more effective than conventional surgery in children with life-threatening conditions.
This minimally invasive approach -- known as the Expanded Endonasal Approach (EEA) -- was pioneered and refined in adults over the last decade by surgeons at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and is now a viable option for tumors in children and in many instances for tumors that were once deemed to be inoperable.
Collaborating with colleagues at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, surgeons have recently expanded its use to include children and have performed EEA on more than 50 pediatric patients, more than have been reported by any other center in the world.
In a retrospective study of the first 25 pediatric patients -- ranging in age from 3 to 18 -- who underwent EEA between January 1999 and August 2005 at Children's and UPMC, the surgeons found the approach may be safer than conventional surgical techniques in well-selected cases. More importantly, in certain cases it may offer an option to patients who otherwise would have no surgical alternative.