Milestone: SSKM Hospital completes 100 transnasal transsphenoidal surgeries

kolkata: The SSKM Hospital has achieved another milestone as it completed around 100 transnasal transsphenoidal surgeries which is a minimally invasive technique used to remove pituitary adenomas by inserting an endoscope through the nose.

The most recent case was of Sariful Seikh's, a 35-year-old man from South 24-Parganas' Bishnupur who had been suffering from convulsions for a long time. The patient was taken to the Institute of Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS) department of the SSKM Hospital. He used to complain about weakness, headaches and also convulsions. MRI and CT scan reports showed that the patient has been suffering from pituitary macroadenomas. A team was formed by the hospital headed by the Director of the OHNS, Dr Arunava Sengupta and the department head Dr Debasish Burman.

An endoscope is a long tube with a camera attached at the end that sends images to a computer screen for the surgeon to view inside the body. The tumor which was there inside the skull was removed by this method. This procedure involves a minimum amount of risks. The operation lasted for around 3 hours in the case of Sariful.

It may also be mentioned here that SSKM has already introduced costly in-vitro-fertilization (IVF) treatment consultations at the outpatient department (OPD) from last month. People will be able to avail costly treatment at free-of-costs. This is eastern India's first free IVF clinic opened by a government hospital. IPGMER-SSKM director Dr Manimoy Bandyopadhyay in November last year announced that the IVF treatment will be started. The services are available at the 'Centre of Excellence of Reproductive Medicine' (CERM) in SSKM. The OPD services are run for two days a week.