Content courtesy of Ivanhoe

In adults, the skull is made up of 28 bones, but babies have almost double that amount. They slowly fuse together, giving our brain a hard shell of protection; but what happens if the bones fuse too early? A baby's brain keeps growing as it's squeezed inside the skull. It's a dangerous condition that now has a less risky solution.

Andrea Gilkes cherishes every moment she spends with her little guy. They've been through a lot in his young life!

"There was something definitely different," she recalled to Ivanhoe. "We didn't know if it was correctible with age, we just knew that there was something different about his face."

In photos of Aaron after birth, you can see a small bump on his forehead.

"His right eye was at a different level than his left eye," Andrea said. "His forehead was a little bit off."

Aaron was born with craniosynostosis, where the brain is growing normally, but the bones of the skull have fused too early. If not treated, it could cause brain damage.

"If they sort of mold together too quickly, then it get's tight and then the brain can't grow and then the skull grows abnormally as a result of that," Samuel Rhee, M.D., a craniofacial surgeon at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York, explained to Ivanhoe.

Dr. Rhee is one of just a dozen doctors nationwide using a new technique to help children like Aaron.

"Traditionally with surgery, we would remove almost the entire skull bone off the brain and then cut the bone into multiple parts and then reassemble it all back together, so it's really sort of a humpty dumpty procedure," Dr. Rhee said.

This surgery left children in intensive care for weeks. It involved blood loss, transfusions, a high risk of infections and brain damage. A new minimally invasive technique wipes most of those risks.

"You will make a small incision on the top of the head," Dr. Rhee explained. "You will cut out the area that has fused."

According to Dr. Rhee, this surgery is not widely accepted yet and only a handful of doctors are performing the procedure. Some doctors want to wait and see the long term affects.

So far, everything is good for Aaron. His mom says he's happy, healthy and learning new things every day. There's nothing else she can ask for.

The less invasive surgery can be done in the first few months of life, but Dr. Rhee says this surgery is not widely accepted yet. More children need to have it and long term studies need to be done; but he does believe it can be a better option, with better results for the right patients.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Weill Cornell Medical College
http://www.cornellphysicians.com/strhee/index.html
http://www.cornellsurgery.org/patients/health/craniosynostosis.html