Superglue Saves Boy From Rare Disorder

Press Association Images

By Jordan Lite

Dafi Evans just needed a little glue to be put back together again.

The toddler from Wales was born with Vein of Galen malformation, a rare condition that causes blood to rush too quickly out of the brain, resulting in heart failure. Using a kind of medical superglue the day after his birth, doctors closed the abnormal vein in Dafi’s brain that caused the problem. Today he’s a healthy 16-month-old, according to BBC News.

“It’s amazing, because these kids had [a] 100 percent mortality before these procedures were developed, and now almost all survive,” Walter Molofsky, M.D., chief of pediatric neurology at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, told AOL Health.

The technique is a form of embolization, in which glues or coils are inserted into the malformed vein via a tube woven through the groin. The procedure, which gradually blocks the defective vein to divert blood to surrounding veins and capillaries, has been used for about 20 years, Molofsky said. However, technological advances in the catheters and materials used to plug the malformed vein have improved it. Depending on the anatomy of the malformation, it may take three to five treatments to correct the problem, he said.

Just how many people have Vein of Galen malformation is unknown, butmalformed connections between the brain’s arteries and veins that can cause disease are estimated to affect fewer than 10 in 100,000 people.

Using a cranial ultrasound, doctors can sometimes spot Vein of Galen malformations before birth. Depending on how badly stressed a baby’s heart is from the condition, doctors either begin treating the malformation right away or manage the heart failure with medication for as long as eight months, when the baby is bigger and easier to treat, Molofsky said.

Some 60 percent of children who receive the treatment are able to live normally, while 20 percent have mild disabilities, Stefan Brew, M.D., an interventional neuroradiologist Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, told the The Daily Mail.Another 10 percent are severely disabled and the remainder will die, he said.

To Dafi’s mother, Catrin Evans, the technique is a “miracle.”