An infant's life was saved after quick-thinking doctors used surgical superglue to treat an aneurysm in the baby's brain.
3-week-old Ashlyn Julian was at the University of Kansas Hospital when doctors discovered an olive-size aneurysm during an MRI scan.
The size of the aneurysm is extremely rare in children, according to neurosurgeon Dr Koji Ebersole. Doctors had to find small adult equipment to treat the condition as there was none sized for an infant's head.
However, Ashlyn, suffered a brain hemorrhage, which prompted doctors from several hospitals to find a way to treat the infant. Adults would typically undergo an open-skull surgery to operate on the aneurysm, but doctors did not want to operate on the infant and wanted to find a way to repair the damage from the inside.
Doctors used a tiny microcatheter which travelled from Ashlyn's right hip. The catheter was navigated into the her neck and next to the aneurysm using a brain imaging machine. Ebersole then deposited the surgical superglue to the blood vessel which sealed the blood vessel in seconds.
"It's literally the same compound as the superglue you'd find in the store," Ebersole said, according to SFGate.
The rare procedure, which took about 45 minutes, is believed to be the first to be used to operate on an infant's brain.
Ashlyn's parents thanked Ebersole for saving their daughter's life. "I can't express how incredibly lucky and graced we are," said Gina Julian.
Ashlyn is currently resting and will return to the hospital where the blood spilled by the aneurysm into the brain will continue to be drained.
Ebersole believes that the aneurysm will not affect Ashlyn ever again. "I think she's going to have a perfectly normal life," he said.
