Doctors at AIIMS were able to cure a rare Spinal tumour- with alcohol.
28-year-old Shruti Jha was pregnant when she was diagnosed with a rare spine tumour and was paralysed from the waist down. She was brought to AIIMS when all other avenues failed.
After several rounds of consultation, neurosurgeons at AIIMS decided to resort to alcohol to cure her, reports the Mail Today. This was a first in a patient with advanced pregnancy.
Dr. PS Chandra, professor of neurology at AIIMS, told the newspaper, "MRI suggested that it was a spine tumour. Many people outside opined that it was a cancerous tumour and there's no cure... We immediately regonised as a slow growing vertebral tumour, which is not malignant. But the biggest challenge is surgery... if it (tumour) gets touched by the doctor during surgery, it bleeds heavily."
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The doctors then decided to go ahead with a technique not very commonly used- Absolute alcohol is pumped into the tumour to destroy the lump. Substituting the expensive and time consuming procedure 'Intra-arterial embolisation' where a glue is injected into the tumour, the doctors were, indeed, able to successfuly remove the tumour and cure the woman.
