Fw: News release from UT Southwestern for April 18, 2001

[Guest guest]

Martha Murdock, Director

National Silicone Implant Foundation

Dallas, Texas Headquarters

----- Original Message -----

From: " Robin Amerine " <Robin.Amerine@...>

<UTSWNEWS@...>

Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 3:15 PM

Subject: News release from UT Southwestern for April 18, 2001

Media Contact: Mindy Baxter

214-648-3404

melinda.baxter@...

UT SOUTHWESTERN NEUROSURGEON RECOMMENDS

ANEURYSM SCREENING FOR YOUNG WOMEN WHO SMOKE

DALLAS - April 18, 2000 - Christy Bradshaw started smoking cigarettes in the

schoolyard when she was 13.

Seventeen years later, she had brain surgery to remove three aneurysms

caused by smoking.

" If I had known when I was 13 that cigarettes could kill instantly, I never

would have started, " said Bradshaw, 30. " I thought lung cancer was the only

thing that could happen, and I thought that happened only to much older

people. "

Cigarette smoking, especially in young women, can cause brain aneurysms, and

Dr. Kopitnik, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas professor of

neurological surgery, said patients like Bradshaw don't know of the danger.

" The warning on a pack of cigarettes doesn't mention brain aneurysm, and

most people are surprised to find that can be a complication of cigarette

smoking, " Kopitnik said. " Nicotine attacks the cerebral blood vessels. This

is really a silent killer. "

Kopitnik said that after seeing a number of young women patients with

smoking-related aneurysms, he feels strongly about early aneurysm screenings

for women at risk.

" Young women who smoke should check with their doctor about being screened

for aneurysms, " Kopitnik said. " The screening involves doing an MRI

(magnetic resonance imaging) of the brain, and it could save your life if an

aneurysm is detected. "

Bradshaw also wants young women like herself to know the immediate effects

of a cigarette.

" If nobody ever does anything about telling people about smoking and

aneurysms, nothing's going to change, " said Bradshaw, who lives in

Nashville, Ark.

A severe headache sent Bradshaw, mother of a 2-year-old daughter, to the

hospital emergency room twice in 2000. Her family doctor, Dr. Joe King of

Nashville, is the one who

realized she had something more than a headache.

" I knew something was wrong, " she said. " The pain came on suddenly. It felt

like a sledgehammer hit me, and my head started to get hot. "

After magnetic resonance imaging, doctors found the aneurysms, and she was

flown to Zale Lipshy University Hospital, UT Southwestern's private adult

referral hospital. Kopitnik clipped the three aneurysms.

At Zale Lipshy, Kopitnik and Dr. Duke Samson, chairman of neurological

surgery, perform about 150 aneurysm operations a year. During the surgery,

Kopitnik makes a 6-inch incision at the patient's front hairline and removes

a piece of skull to have access to the brain. He places a tiny clip across

the base of the aneurysm, cutting off blood flow to the aneurysm.

For doctors like Kopitnik, the challenge is to catch the aneurysm before it

bursts. An MRI can detect an aneurysm when it reaches 5 millimeters in size,

but the average size of an aneurysm that bursts is only 7 millimeters.

A burst aneurysm requires a longer, more dangerous surgery, a longer

recovery time and much higher medical costs.

" Like cancer, early detection is the key with an aneurysm, " Kopitnik said.

" The only thing better is to prevent them. "

Sixty percent of people with a ruptured brain aneurysm either die or are

left permanently disabled. In the United States each year, about 30,000

people have a brain aneurysm rupture.

Over the last decade, Kopitnik and Samson have operated on about 1,800

patients with aneurysms. About 70 percent of those patients were women.

###

This news release will be available April 18 on our World Wide Web home page

at

http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/home_pages/news/