Infantile autism can be cured by neurosurgery?

[simbazig]

My 10-year-old nephew suffers infantile autism: eye contact problem, language problem, mentally retarded, cranky, autosadism. I serf the medical websites. Therapy of infantile autism focuses on behaviorism therapy such as pictures, music, physical exercise, etc. I also found some surgeons treated autism patients by neurosurgery operations. I wonder whether neurosurgery operations are really effective for curing infantile autism and this kind of therapy is mature. Any risks exist in neurosurgery operations? Any successful cases around the world? After the redundant nerves are cut off, is it possible for them to revive after operations? Hope for your replies! Thanks a lot!

[MJIthewriter]

Honestly I don't know... There are so many "treatments" out there with the intent of curing. If such treatments work I'm not sure if I'd go for it. There are things that could stand to be improved with training or treatment, like being face-blind and having very little sense of timing (for me my rhythem is almost always off in conversation...thus I tend to interrupt when I think the person is pausing...), and especially if the child is nonverbal, but otherwise there are some gifts with autism too.

Just curious, do you really know for sure your 10 year old nephew is retarded?  I've been surprized when looking up either you-tube videos or things written by supposidly non-verbal autistics.  What's a challenge is (as far I've noticed) there seems to be a lot more thoughts going on in the head than the autistic person may share with the outside world. The IQ tests unfortunately don't reflect the person's true intelligence.  Without knowing for sure, likely he has average intelligence, but his thinking process may be just a little different and hard to communicate.

I remember when I was about 3-4 and I thought for sure I could talk and remember it that way. Only when I ask my parents or grandma, they say I didn't speak a word.
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One hypothesis my grandma and I worked on was the possability the autistic person is hoping you can see his mental image, because he can see it so clearly in his head and his thoughts. I can't remember for sure if I was thinking like that, but I do know on occasion I wanted to see the EXACT memory (visual observations, thoughts, even irrelevant thoughts to the situation, the background, etc) that someone else had in their head that they were trying to describe.  (Or at least certain elements I wanted to see exactly.) I remember vaguely that being a problem when dad tried to read atticles from the newspaper for me as a child.

This is just a guess. I haven't asked many other autistic people to see if they identify with that or not.

[mjthewriterdad]

Are you sure it was the autism treated by the surgury and not secondary issues of a patient who also happens to have autism?

For example, I treated my autistic daughters knee abrasion with a bandage.  Perhaps this patient had a seizure disorder sa wel as autism, which is not uncommon.

In any case, it would be nice to see a more complete medical history of the patients.

[888mom]

Brain surgery sounds like it would be a risk.  I pulled up the following from the internet, about surgery for epileptic seizures:

Surgery
Epilepsy is sometimes caused by an area of abnormal brain tissue, frequently located in the temporal lobe of the brain. If surgery can remove this tissue, seizures can often be prevented. The chance of successful surgery and the risks of complications differ for each person.

Surgery is usually only used where medication fails. It is not intended to be a substitute for medication. If surgery is considered to be a possible treatment for your epilepsy, extensive tests will first be carried out. Your doctors will then discuss with you the possible outcomes of surgery in your case, so that you can make an informed choice.