As you might expect, kinda gross folks! Not for the squeamish.8O
Doctors pull teeth from baby's rare brain tumour
By Scott Sutherland | Geekquinox – 2 hours 49 minutes ago
If you're easily grossed out, you might want to skip this one. Doctors recently published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, detailing how they removed several fully-formed teeth from the brain of a four-month-old boy. This wasn't due to an injury or a bite by some animal, though, it was due to a rare brain tumour called a craniopharyngioma.
This isn't the first time that teeth have been found growing in a brain tumour. Doctors have found many types of body tissues — hair, teeth, bones and even things like eyes, limbs and full torsos — growing in a different kind of tumour, called a teratoma.
These tumours grow from embryonic stem cells, so they can develop into other cells. Craniopharyngiomas, on the other hand, are tumours of the pituitary gland, which produces hormones that play a role in our growth and sexual maturity, as well as blood pressure and metabolism, just to name a few.
This is apparently the first time that doctors have ever found anything like this in a craniopharyngioma. However, Dr. Narlin Beaty, the University of Maryland Medical Center neurosurgeon who was on the surgical team that removed the tumour, told LiveScience that doctors had found calcium deposits in these tumours before. Because of such finds, they suspected that craniopharyngiomas develop from the same cells as the ones that go into growing teeth in our bodies. Until now, there was nothing to definitely confirm those suspicions.
As for the boy, the tumour unfortunately destroyed the connections between his pituitary gland and the rest of his brain. For the rest of his life, he'll need treatments to replace hormones that his body can't produce on its own. However, Beaty told LiveScience that he was "doing extremely well, all things considered."
Craniopharyngiomas can grow quite large, but they tend to be benign, so they don't spread. Still, this baby boy was quite lucky.
"This was a big tumour right in the centre of his brain," Beaty told LiveScience. "Before the modern surgical era this child would not have survived."
Yahoo News Canada - Latest News & Headlines
Yeah for modern medicine pulling this off! Gah for gruesome nightmarish imagery sure to inspire the most paranoid amongst us.8O
Doctors pull teeth from baby's rare brain tumour
By Scott Sutherland | Geekquinox – 2 hours 49 minutes ago
If you're easily grossed out, you might want to skip this one. Doctors recently published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, detailing how they removed several fully-formed teeth from the brain of a four-month-old boy. This wasn't due to an injury or a bite by some animal, though, it was due to a rare brain tumour called a craniopharyngioma.
This isn't the first time that teeth have been found growing in a brain tumour. Doctors have found many types of body tissues — hair, teeth, bones and even things like eyes, limbs and full torsos — growing in a different kind of tumour, called a teratoma.
These tumours grow from embryonic stem cells, so they can develop into other cells. Craniopharyngiomas, on the other hand, are tumours of the pituitary gland, which produces hormones that play a role in our growth and sexual maturity, as well as blood pressure and metabolism, just to name a few.
This is apparently the first time that doctors have ever found anything like this in a craniopharyngioma. However, Dr. Narlin Beaty, the University of Maryland Medical Center neurosurgeon who was on the surgical team that removed the tumour, told LiveScience that doctors had found calcium deposits in these tumours before. Because of such finds, they suspected that craniopharyngiomas develop from the same cells as the ones that go into growing teeth in our bodies. Until now, there was nothing to definitely confirm those suspicions.
As for the boy, the tumour unfortunately destroyed the connections between his pituitary gland and the rest of his brain. For the rest of his life, he'll need treatments to replace hormones that his body can't produce on its own. However, Beaty told LiveScience that he was "doing extremely well, all things considered."
Craniopharyngiomas can grow quite large, but they tend to be benign, so they don't spread. Still, this baby boy was quite lucky.
"This was a big tumour right in the centre of his brain," Beaty told LiveScience. "Before the modern surgical era this child would not have survived."
Yahoo News Canada - Latest News & Headlines
Yeah for modern medicine pulling this off! Gah for gruesome nightmarish imagery sure to inspire the most paranoid amongst us.8O
