17th
Going in through the nose to get a pituitary tumor: Endoscopic Endonasal Approach.
This morning, I finally read Matt Haughey’s candid and brave account of his recent discovery that he has a pituitary tumor and is facing surgery in order to have it removed. Brain cancer - even just the term - is scary shit. To everyone, right? A brain isn’t like an arm. It’s the epicenter of our being. Not only that, it’s extremely delicate and hard to get to. So naturally, the prospect of having brain surgery freaks a lot of people out. But as I read Matt’s account, I realized he appears to have been identified as a candidate for a minimally invasive surgical approach with which I’m somewhat familiar. That bodes incredibly well for Matt and thousands of others in his position, and that awareness made me weepy with gratitude for a profession that normally gets a bad rap for being populated principally by egotists with god complexes.
For people who don’t know, Endoscopic Endonasal Approach (EEA) is a minimally invasive brain surgery approach whereby a tiny endoscope (complete with a camera, a flashlight, and some tools) is inserted through the nasal cavity and into the brain. It is capable of reaching a remarkable (and increasing) number of locations inside the brain, and recovery from EEA is relatively quick and complete. In combination with shrinking techniques like Gamma Knife, EEA has an EXCELLENT history of safely and effectively removing pituitary tumors.
I researched EEA deeply - including reading scores of patient outcome studies - while doing the IA for a website for one of the pioneers of EEA, Dr. Amin Kassan of UPMC here in Pittsburgh. (Click through and watch the animation of EEA in action. It’s awesome stuff.) What I learned filled me with great optimism about the outlook for so many people with so many types of brain cancer. In fact, the stories (and studies) I read about various prognoses and corresponding EEA outcomes blew my mind. There’s no other way to put it. I had never been so moved by the results of compassionate, brilliant doctors’ drives to advance the effectiveness and quality of their practice. What EEA has done for brain surgery patients is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
It’s beautiful, how many people are pulling for Matt, and inspiring to live in an era where the effective treatment of conditions like his has gone from hopeless to routine, and I thought a lot of you might want to know just how much cause for optimism there is here. Because, guys, there’s a ton.
