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Neurosurgeon Dr Moventhiran Ramakrishnan shares the life-and-death challenges of treating intracranial bleeding in pregnant women.

The first warning? headache - always a red flag in pregnancy.

Diagnosis isn’t simple: CT scans aren’t safe for the fetus, so doctors must rely on MRIs unless the situation is so critical that they have no choice but to proceed with CT to save the mother’s life.

In the most urgent cases, Dr Moventhiran recalls waiting for the baby’s first cry before beginning brain surgery - a race to save two lives in one operating room.

A gripping look at the split-second decisions that define neurosurgery in pregnancy.

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Transcript
00:00So this headache in pregnancy is always a red flag sign and you have to understand
00:04this is where we become problematic when they have a light headache because
00:09CT scans are not safe for pregnancy. So we need to do MRI for them.
00:14So sometimes they will say, okay, we push for the MRI
00:17but in a dire emergency cases where they already in your emergency department
00:22we say we have no choice. We have to proceed with the CT brain.
00:25We have to become mother first. We try to save the mother first.
00:28So how is it challenging in managing a pregnancy with the intracranial bleed?
00:33The first word challenging is pregnant lady.
00:37So the moment my medical officer will call and say, boss, I have a pregnant lady case.
00:43You know, even at what time our eyes are wide open, we won't even see the scan.
00:47We will just jump into our computers or laptop to see, look at the scan
00:51because our decision need to be very accurate and fast.
00:55So when you're pregnant, your body changes.
00:59So your blood flow is increased.
01:02So what happened with this?
01:03This is a time when something that was not diagnosed can be diagnosed.
01:08Like mostly the cases like that I operated and I experienced throughout my service,
01:14usually they don't know they have aneurysm.
01:17They don't know they have an AVM.
01:18Because if they were diagnosed before the pregnancy, we will advise them in a lot of methods
01:25what you're supposed to do.
01:27So what happened was the blood flow changes the hemodilution.
01:31Because your blood become thick, sometimes thin, and you'll be on medication,
01:36and sometimes you can be stressed, right?
01:38And you can strain and everything.
01:41This caused the blood flow to show up, increase more to your brain.
01:44And this, the basic pathology is the aneurysm might be there.
01:49Like, you know, like I said, one out of ten of us might be walking with aneurysm.
01:55So what happened, the body changes cause that symptoms to start to appear.
02:00Like particularly, go back, they will have a headache.
02:04So this headache in pregnancy is always a red flag sign.
02:07And you have to understand, this is where we become problematic when they have a light headache
02:12because CT scans are not safe for pregnancy.
02:14So we need to do MRI for them.
02:17So sometimes they will say, okay, we push for the MRI.
02:21But in a dire emergency cases where they already in your emergency department,
02:25we say we have no choice.
02:26We have to proceed with the CT brain.
02:28We have to become mother first.
02:30We try to save the mother first.
02:32But it's very tragic because aneurysm ruptured is one minute time bomb.
02:37So I will say not one, 30 seconds because you are talking now, you can drop in next 30 seconds.
02:44So in this case, like particular case or certain aneurysm in pregnancy, never be small.
02:51Like example, that size is not like 2mm or 3mm.
02:54It can be 10mm, it can be 15mm.
02:57MM sounds small, but when you do a surgery, we call it a giant aneurysm.
03:01You know, it's called giant anything more than 10mm.
03:04Oh, sorry, 15mm.
03:05So, and when you have a giant aneurysm in pregnancy, that make you to sit down and think,
03:11what am I supposed to do?
03:12So this is where we will call and say, you know what, you have to take out the baby.
03:17I have to operate on a brain.
03:19So I think there are most of the time, sometimes I'll be waiting to start until the baby deliver.
03:24The moment I heard the baby sound like crying, okay, I said, can I start?
03:28Can, bomb.
03:28So I start.
03:35So, let's do that.
03:35So I think there's a little bit of a baby.
03:36So, let's do that.
03:36So, let's do that.
03:37So, let's do that.
03:37So, let's do that.
03:38So let's do that.
03:39So, let's do that.
03:39So, let me see.
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