“We needed more extreme measures.”On Tuesday morning, Cronutt underwent groundbreaking brain surgery aimed at reversing the epilepsy. If successful, the treatment could save increasing numbers of sea lions and sea otters from succumbing to a new plague of epilepsy. During the operation, they bored a small hole in Cronutt’s skull, inserted an ultrathin needle into the hippocampus of the sea lion’s brain, then implanted embryonic brain cells extracted from a 35-day-old pig. And sea lions and sea otters are increasingly at risk for the disease. “My immediate hope is to help the sea lions and sea otters,” he said.

Source: bd News24 October 09, 2020 05:03 UTC