Teenager becomes world's youngest known patient for conscious brain surgery to treat AVM
Quick Look
- Tilly Phillips, 15, underwent a conscious craniotomy at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool to remove an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), making her the world's youngest known patient for this specific procedure.
- The surgery successfully reduced her seizures.
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Why It Matters
Tilly Phillips, 15, underwent a 12-hour conscious craniotomy at Alder Hey Children's Hospital to remove an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) that caused daily seizures and was near vital brain areas.
A teenager has become the world's youngest known patient to have brain surgery to treat a particular blood vessel abnormality, hospital bosses have said.
Tilly Phillips, now 16, was 15 when she underwent the conscious craniotomy procedure at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.
The 12-hour procedure was to resolve an arteriovenous malformation, which is an abnormal tangle of blood vessels that causes seizures and can be fatal.
Tilly, from Warrington, Cheshire, said the condition had felt like a "ticking time bomb" and that her life had been "on hold".
As well as causing seizures, the abnormality was also close to areas of the brain controlling speech, movement and vision.
Surgeons woke Tilly for about 30 minutes so they could map those parts of her brain in real time and protect vital tissue while removing the malformation.
Although she cannot remember being conscious, the medical team said she was coherent and calmly completed picture-naming tasks.
Clinical psychologist Cathy Grant said electrical stimulation briefly stopped Tilly from naming objects, helping surgeons identify tissue that needed to be protected.
Tilly said she thought the sedation and memory problems she experienced afterwards might explain why she could not recall being awake.
She said her memory was "awful" after the operation, initially struggling to recall friends' names and even the names of familiar animals.
Although it has improved, she sometimes still cannot find a word and uses strategies learned through speech and language therapy.
Before surgery, she said she was experiencing about three seizures a day on average.
The trust said follow-up scans confirmed the condition had been successfully treated and her seizures had reduced significantly.
Tilly's mother Clare said she had experienced some non-epileptic episodes during her recovery, which the family believed were related to the operation.
The teenager spent about a week in hospital and completed her GCSE exams at home while recovering.
She has since secured a summer job before planning to continue her studies.
Open Questions
- What specific long-term neurological impacts might Tilly experience?
- Are there other patients with similar AVMs who could benefit from this technique?
