Man recovers from extremely rare brain operation at St. Mary's Medical Center in Long Beach

Months after performing an extremely rare surgery on a brain condition called pial arteriovenous fistula, surgeons at St. Mary's Medical Center in Long Beach say that the successful procedure is truly one in a million. 

Jeff Poggi was visiting family in Long Beach over the holidays back in December when he decided to take a nap after a long day of shopping. When he woke up, he was in St. Mary's recovering from an incident he doesn't even remember. 

"My wife said I had a seizure and my brother came back from the airport, dropping my son off, and they called 911," Poggi said. 

He was rushed to St. Mary's where he was placed under the care of Neurovascular surgeon Wled Wazni, who explained pial arteriovenous fistula as an "abnormal connection between the artery and the vein on top of the brain parenchyma."

The condition, usually fatal, is so exceedingly rare, that there have only been 120 cases reported dating back to 1970. 

Wazni says that since St. Mary's is a compressive stroke center, he was able to run a test that revealed the issue. He discussed options with Poggi's wife, offering to conduct the rare surgery traditionally performed at larger university hospitals.

"Every minute that went by this defect in his brain is like a ticking time bomb," Wazni said. 

With the help of his team and a machine called a fluoroscopy, "we are able to do continuous X-Ray and we are able to move the machine in multiple different angles and I can do pictures. ... I can locate the lesion angiographically and guide the surgeon to where that legion is."

The successful operation was a first-of-its-kind at St. Mary's. 

"They took a piece of my skull out to get in there," Poggi said, noting that thanks to the quick work of the surgical team he was able to return to work within three days time. "God put me there for a reason. We totally believe that."

Since performing the operation, Wazni and the rest of the surgical team are hopeful that other patients who might find themselves in a similar situation consider their treatment for brain lesions that other hospitals might not be able to handle.