Rare disorder makes girl's skull too small for brain

Fox ^ | 9/12/12 | Jessica Ryen Doyle

[workerbee]

An MRI revealed Allie had Type I Chiari malformation, which meant the back of her skull was too small for its contents.

"Essentially, what happens, the cerebellum tonsils are pushing through the bottom of the skull and potentially putting pressure on the spinal cord and the tissue of the spinal cord," said Dr. Robert Keating, professor and chief of neurosurgery at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Allie, who lives in Clinton, N.Y., initially went to the Chiari Institute on Long Island, but her parents decided to see Keating for a second opinion.

* * * * * * *

Keating's colleague performed the fourth surgery, who told Barone [Allie's father] that while the standard way of performing the surgery was to lie the patient face down, she had decided to sit Allie up — like she was drawing — and that's when doctors noticed her second vertebrae was also abnormally shaped and acting like a knife, scraping the dura (the outer layer of three membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord).

"It was another abnormality that no one knew about," said Barone, who credits Keating and his team for making her daughter as if nothing ever happened. "She started school (last week) and she has more energy than ever. She's like a whole new kid."

Allie will have to return to D.C. for a checkup at the end of September. Her beaded stitches will be removed then, and hopefully some of her restrictions will be lifted at that point.

"My thing is, I learned from this," Barone said. "Do your homework, advocate and be your own doctor, too. Get a second opinion; talk to which doctor and find which procedure you are comfortable with for your kid."

[workerbee]

One wonders if parents like the Barones will have the chance to be advocates for their children, once the feds start regulating whose worthy of what procedure. Would this child would get the benefit of 4 surgeries?

[svcw]

Short answer - obama’s - plan she would die

[billorites]

Big head?

Whadya mean?

[Signalman]

Headline:

"Brain too small for skull".

[JRandomFreeper]

Kid certainly has bragging rights: "My brain was too big for my skull".

/johnny

[billorites]

I got this problem where Fairies come into
my bedroom at night and shrink my pants.

[Sans-Culotte]

This sounds like the same thing that afflicted golfer J.B. Holmes.