8-Year-Old Twin Girls Undergo Complex Brain Surgery To Treat Rare Moyamoya Disease

The doctors at a hospital in India performed a brain bypass surgery on twin children, who were diagnosed with a rare disorder.

The twins were reportedly suffering from Moyamoya disease, which reduced blood flow to the brain.

The surgery was performed at Apollo Proton Cancer Center, located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The girls, who were originally from Tamil Nadu, were residing in the Netherlands.

Moyamoya disease is a rare blood vessel disorder in which the carotid artery in the skull is blocked or narrowed, reducing blood flow to the brain. The condition is very rare in identical twins, doctors said.

"Moyamoya disease was first identified in Japan in the 1960s and is referred to as 'puff of smoke'. The cause is not yet known," Roopesh Kumar, senior consultant neurosurgeon, APCC, told reporters Tuesday, according to the Hindu.

Kumar said if the disease is not treated, it causes multiple strokes in children, affecting normal life.

"The disease has multiple stages. It is important to pick up on the disease early to arrest its progression," he said. "Moyamoya affects the brain vessels inside the skull. We have vessels beneath the skin. These vessels are very small, measuring less than 1 mm. We identify and separate them and stitch the outside blood vessels into the ones inside."

In this rare case, one of the twins was more symptomatic than the other.

The children underwent MRI brain perfusion, which found their brains' left side was more affected than the right. A brain bypass surgery was recommended in order to divert the blood supply from the skin of the head to the brain through a window created on the skull.

The surgery is called superficial temporal artery to middle cerebral artery bypass. First the symptomatic child underwent the surgery following, which the same was performed for the other girl.

The bypass surgery was performed three months ago, but the news about the procedure was released only Tuesday, Daiji World reported, citing IANS.

Doctors said that following the surgery, blood circulation on the left side of the brain improved. According to the hospital, this was Asia's first brain bypass surgery on twin children with Moyamoya disease.