Bengaluru: Radhika (name changed), a 47-year-old homemaker from HSR Layout, had an ordeal of her life due to a misdiagnosed case of brain tumor. With the initial presentation of psychiatric symptoms, she was treated for nearly eight months for a supposed mental and behavioral disorder, only to discover later a tumor in her brain the size of a tennis ball.
Misdiagnosis and Initial Treatment
Radhika started showing symptoms of hallucinations, withdrawal from her family, and a lot of other symptoms, like putting on weight, sleeping more, feeling low, having incontinence, restricted speech, poor memory, visual loss in one of the eyes. Her husband was concerned and took her to a psychiatrist who diagnosed her as having a mental disorder. She continued to deteriorate while under treatment.
Realization and Proper Diagnosis
Radhika’s husband narrated the frustrating and traumatic journey, “Radhika had low mood, urinary incontinence, reduced speech output, looked aloof, was not talking to people associated with memory impairment and headache for six to eight months. When the treatment from psychiatrist got ineffective, then we contacted a neurosurgeon. An advanced MRI revealed not mental issues but a tumor in the frontal lobes.
Dr. Aniruddha Tekkatte Jagannatha, Consultant Neurosurgeon at Aster RV Hospital, explained the complexities of the operation: “The frontal lobes are responsible for decision-making and behavior regulation. Psychiatric symptoms such as mood, abnormal behaviors, and personality changes due to tumors in this region, such as meningiomas, can occur in less than 10% of brain tumor cases or even in gliomas. These are usually misdiagnosed, delaying their treatment.”
Surgical Intervention and Recovery
After the proper diagnosis was made, Radhika was subjected to an eight-hour surgery with the use of navigation and tumor fluorescence technology (blue-light) to effect the total excision of the tumor. Astonishingly, within a week of the operation, Radhika was back to normal, to the delight of her family.
Early Diagnosis of Brain Tumors
Symptoms of the brain tumors depends upon their locations. Visual symptoms like hallucinations, nystagmus, and hemianopsia could be early symptoms of brain tumors. Early diagnosis is the key to a better prognosis, as is explained by Radhika’s story.
