Cranial Surgery Case Study
Hunt School of Dental Medicine Student David Hu Publishes Case Study in Journal of Neurosurgery
Fourth-year Hunt School of Dental Medicine student David Hu, M.A., presented at the the annual meeting of the American Academy of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons in April in Bellevue, Washington.
David Hu, M.A., a fourth-year student at Texas Tech Health El Paso’s Hunt School of Dental Medicine, recently published a case study in the prestigious Journal of Neurosurgery: Case Lessons.
David Hu, M.A.
The article highlights the case of a 5-month-old girl with a rare skull birth defect who was experiencing hydrocephalus, an abnormal buildup of fluid in the brain. A surgical team used a minimally invasive procedure to reopen seams of the skull that had fused prematurely, allowing the skull to expand naturally as the child grew.
The surgical intervention was a success, and the girl, now a grade-schooler, is experiencing normal development and doing well in school.
Hu’s academic mentor, David Yates, D.M.D., M.D., FACS, tasked Hu with conducting a systematic review of the case and preparing it for publication. Dr. Yates is a cranial and facial surgeon with High Desert Oral & Facial Surgery in El Paso and the division chief of cranial and facial surgery at El Paso Children’s Hospital. Dr. Yates also trains future dentists in the dental school’s Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Program.
Hu gained valuable real-world academic experience by shepherding the case study to publication.
“I was involved in evaluating the follow-up test results,” Hu said. “My role was to gather all the information about the case, both before and after treatment, conduct a review, and then combine the case findings with the literature review to better understand and share the importance of this case with the field.”
His success didn’t stop there: He was invited to present the case study at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons in April in Bellevue, Washington.
The experience has been inspirational for Hu, who said he had never thought of specializing in this field until he heard Dr. Yates give a lecture on the treatments he and his team had been doing to treat craniofacial deformities in young children. Now Hu plans to apply to oral and maxillofacial surgery residency programs, and pursue a new dream after graduation from the Hunt School of Medicine.