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KU Doctors Use Superglue To Stop Infant Brain Aneurysm

Doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital expect a three-week-old girl to make a full recovery after they closed an aneurysm in her brain, using super glue. 

Jared and Gina Julian knew there was something wrong with their three-week-old daughter.  Her mother says little Ashlyn began screaming and showing other symptoms.

“She was very stiff, then very rag-doll limp, and then kind of not super responsive,” says Gina Julian. “And later that night, she again projectiled, at which point in time we just were, she’s going back to the hospital.”

Doctors at Children’s Mercy Hospital, in Kansas City, ran an ultrasound on Ashlyn’s head, then quickly transferred her to the KU Hospital.  There doctors discovered that a blood vessel in the baby’s brain had swollen, and ruptured. 

Rather than risk surgery, with the potential for bleeding, they used a tiny catheter to deliver a drop of surgical super glue to close off the leaking blood vessel.  The doctors say they think it’s the first time this has ever been done in a baby less than a month old.

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