RIYADH, 14 November 2007 — A neurosurgery team at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, used an advanced technology to cover a major skull defect in a Saudi young man, according to hospital doctors. The youth lived for several years with an exposed large area of his brain, being covered only with scalp and without skull bone protection, which had been removed by surgery.
The patient was eager to find a solution to his problem, which affected his life to a degree that he was jobless for many years. 3-D pictures of the patient’s head were used to prepare and produce custom-made device in synthetic porous ceramic hydroxy-apatite.
“A model of the device was produced equal to the patient’s bone defect and a block of porous hydroxyl-apatite crafted to produce a model, which was surgically implanted at the patient’s skull defect,” Dr. Esam Al-Jamal said yesterday.
Aside from Al-Jamal, the team included Dr. Sherif El-Watidy, professor Zain Jamjoom and professor Mohamed Al-Qattan, head of the plastic surgery division. “The youth left the hospital after five days and is doing very well after six months of the operation. He has started working again,” Dr. Al-Jamal added.
