Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 4/8/2010

Question
Hello.. My brother (30 years old) did the surgery 2 years go, they removed 6o% of the cyst. On the 21rst of march 2010 he did another one, it was critical, 12 hrs. Everything was ok, went back home after 4 days, then had a huge headache, came back to hospital on the 31 of march until this day. The doctor said that a vein "cracked" (he was coughing all the time, so there was pressure on his brain). They did a drain from his back to release the blood (the blood that came out of the vein is making all this unbearable headache). 5 days passed, they closed the drain for 2 days which caused more headache. They did 2 CT scans, the first one showed that 30% of the blood came out and 70% left, the second one (after 2 days) showed a small amount of blood which it will dissolve in the body by itself, but needs time, as the doctor said.
They reopened it, he spent a whole day without pain but then headache again, till this moment.. and of course perfalgan (pain killers) every 2 hours, shots of morphine.
I just want to ask if this situation is gonna take a long time, is it normal to have this huge pain everyday or is it supposed to be gradually less ?
is cellphone dangerous for him or can he chat for like half an hour everyday (with his girlfriend)?
thank u for answering all my questions

Answer
At the moment there is nothing to indicate that cell phone talking is in any way dangerous, though I have difficulties in understanding how such a pain ridden patient can find the strength to do so much phone talking.

For the rest of your question it must be answered by a neurosurgeon which I'm not. I'm a medical oncologist & radiation therapist (cancer specialist) with experience of treating brain tumors. But epidermoid brain cysts are normally not treated with those methods but by neurosurgeons.

So I do suggest that you direct your question to such a specialist.



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