PART OF MAN'S BRAIN SNEAKS INTO HIS EAR; CHENNAI DOCTORS FIX CONDITION

When 54-year-old Loganathan felt a pink, soft portion of mass inside his ear, he thought of it as some odd growth that made him hear odd sounds. But he was in for a shock when he decided to visit the doctors.

After having a look inside his ear hole, an ENT specialist suspected that the mass was a part of his brain. A series of scans confirmed this.

"We have seen the brain through the ear with naked eye," said Apollo Hospitals neurosurgeon Dr Joy Varghese. "We waited for the scans, which confirmed that it was a part of his temporal lobe. We convinced the patient to undergo a procedure to close the hole in the acoustic canal that exposed the brain," he said.

Leaving the brain exposed could cause life-threatening infections or complications, besides vision impairment.

In an eight-hour surgery that followed, Dr Varghese and another ENT specialist helped put the part of the brain back in its place. The surgery was completed by peeling the inner softer part of the brain.

"The sound I was hearing was my brain pulsation to the lub-dub sound of the heart. I knew I had to undergo surgery, but I was scared. Now, after the surgery, I'm fine and I don't hear odd noises," said Loganathan.