First surgery performed by a team of ent doctors and neurosurgeons

The intervention for removing vestibular schwannoma through translabyrinthine approach in a 60-year-old patient - a premiere for medicine in the Republic of Moldova, which took place on December 9 this year - is appreciated as a successful one. The surgery lasted over 8 hours. The patient came round and managed to smile, which proves that his facial nerve had not been affected. The computed tomography confirmed the absence of a tumor. Marin Buracovschi, ENT surgeon, doctoral student at Otorhinolaryngology Department of Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy, one of the doctors who directly participated in the surgery, told us about this.

The surgery was extremely difficult and was performed by several teams of specialists, who got involved at different stages. Among them were professor Grigore Zapuhlîh from our University’s Neurosurgery Department, Director of Diomid Gherman Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery and professor Oleg Borysenko, Head of Microsurgery and Otoneurosurgery Department, A.I. Kolomyichenko Kiev Institute of Otolaryngology, Ukraine, assisted by other colleagues and resident doctors.

According to professor Grigore Zapuhlîh, the surgery is considered a pemiere because it was performed by a team of ENT specialists and neurosurgeons for the first time, while, in general, such interventions have been performed in our country for over twenty years, only separately, in specialized profile clinics.

Vestibular schwannoma is an intracranial tumor that originates at the eighth paired cranial nerve and can be located anywhere along the vestibulocochlear nerve pathway, from the inner ear to the pontocerebellar angle. The surgical treatment of this pathology is performed through three types of interventions: retrosigmoid approach, translabyrinthine approach and through the cranial fossa in the case of small tumors. The patient initially complained of a noise in his ear and has gradually lost his hearing. It is a sensitive issue for a person who has no other health problems. Following several investigations, a benign tumor was found that led to atrophy of the auditory nerve. After this intervention, the patient's hearing cannot be restored, instead all other body functions remain intact.

The surgical intervention was performed at the capital’s Diomid Gherman Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, which has a room with high-performance medical equipment that ensures maximum aseptic safety. The operating conditions were also assessed by professor Oleg Borysenko from A.I. Kolomyichenko Institute of Otolaryngology who emphasized that such rooms could not be found in all European centers. In another context, the Ukrainian professor, with 25 years of experience in such interventions, welcomed the team spirit and cooperation of neurosurgeons with ENT specialists, who through this intervention launched a new direction in the field of medicine - Otoneurosurgery. Specialists in the field dedicate their research to discovering new possibilities to treat such pathologies.

The surgery was performed based on the collaboration agreement concluded between Nicolae Testemitanu University and A.I. Kolomyichenko Institute of Otolaryngology from Kiev.

In this context, on December 10, 2021, our university was visited by a delegation of A.I. Kolomyichenko Institute of Otolaryngology, represented by Oleg Borysenko, Head of Microsurgery and Otoneurosurgery Department, and Alexander Papp, Senior Scientific Researcher. Accompanied by Sergiu Vetricean, Head of Otorhinolaryngology Department, and Marin Buracovschi, doctoral student at the same department, Ukrainian doctors had a meeting with professor Olga Cernețchi, First Vice-Rector, Vice-Rector for teaching activity. The discussion focused mainly on the vestibular schwannoma surgery carried out jointly by Ukrainian doctors and university department teams, and on the good impressions of this collaboration.