Imagine extracting a golfball from the center of a Jell-O mold. Pulling the ball out is tricky, but keeping every fragment in the correct spot appears to be impossible. Now, pretend someone’s life depended on the Jell-O. Perhaps, it controls the way they move and speak—like the human brain.
At the Saint Louis University Center for Cerebrovascular and Skull Base Surgery, Dr. Saleem Abdulrauf dedicates his days to removing aneurisms and tumors from the brain’s core.
The center opened five years ago as a multi-specialty resource for patients with complex and potentially deadly brain diseases. Recognized for its advancements in brain bypass surgery, it ranks among the top medical facilities in the world for cerebrovascular and skull-based surgery. Through advanced communication technology, doctors give patients around the world opinions on the innermost part of the skull.
“In experienced hands, the mortality rate is not high,” explains Abdulrauf. “High levels of experience leave mortality rates low.”
Abdulrauf performs operations that require up to 13 hours of delicate work. “When I go into an operation, I think, ‘If this was my mom or my sister, what would I do?’” he says. The procedure involves using an artery from the arm to allow the removal of a diseased brain artery while preserving normal blood flow to the brain. “With the brain, there’s a very low room for error,” he says. “The challenge is to get into those difficult areas at the base of the skull, take care of the problem without manipulating the brain, and get out of there.”
The recovery time lasts several days, but patients blend into society with few clues alluding to their recent surgeries after only a few weeks. “At the end of the day, all of the technology and everything we do is really for the patient,” says Abdulrauf.
Recently, Abdulrauf wrote and edited the first major reference textbook on the subject, which will be available later this year. “It is an evolving field,” he says. “Where general surgery was a hundred years ago is where we are today in neurosurgery.”
