The brain descended into the nose, newborn saved with an unprecedented surgery

With an endoscopic operation, a newborn affected by nasal myelomeningocele was saved, a very rare pathology which involves a defective closure of the base of the skull, such as to cause, during fetal life, the descent of a small part of the brain inside the nose .

The operation, performed at the Regina Margherita Children's Hospital of the Città della Salute in Turin, would have no precedent in the world on such a small patient .

In addition to the risk of meningitis, the biggest problem was that the hole was located in the rearmost part of the nose and therefore that the portion of the brain that descended into the nose (very voluminous) obstructed the passage of air, causing increasingly difficult breathing .