Girl 'youngest' to have conscious brain surgery for condition

Girl 'youngest' to have conscious brain surgery for conditionImage source, Clare PhillipsImage caption, Tilly said the condition felt like a "ticking time bomb" ByHaider SaleemNorth WestPublished6 hours agoA teenager has become the world's youngest known patient to have brain surgery to treat a particular blood vessel abnormality, hospital bosses have said. Tilly Phillips, now 16, was 15 when she underwent the conscious craniotomy procedure at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.The 12-hour procedure was to resolve an arteriovenous malformation, which is an abnormal tangle of blood vessels that causes seizures and can be fatal. Tilly, from Warrington, Cheshire, said the condition had felt like a "ticking time bomb" and that her life had been "on hold".As well as causing seizures, the abnormality was also close to areas of the brain controlling speech, movement and vision.Surgeons woke Tilly for about 30 minutes so they could map those parts of her brain in real time and protect vital tissue while removing the malformation.Although she cannot remember being conscious, the medical team said she was coherent and calmly completed picture-naming tasks.Clinical psychologist Cathy Grant said electrical stimulation briefly stopped Tilly from naming objects, helping surgeons identify tissue that needed to be protected.Tilly said she thought the sedation and memory problems she experienced afterwards might explain why she could not recall being awake.Image source, Alder Hey Children’s Foundation TrustImage caption, Members of Alder Hey's specialist team, including consultant neurosurgeon Vejay VakhariaShe said her memory was "awful" after the operation, initially struggling to recall friends' names and even the names of familiar animals. Although it has improved, she sometimes still cannot find a word and uses strategies learned through speech and language therapy.Before surgery, she said she was exp...