Top Sox Prospect Ryan Westmoreland Scheduled For Brain Surgery

19 year old Ryan Westmoreland, who Baseball America recently ranked as the #1 prospect in the Red Sox organization, is scheduled to undergo surgery on Tuesday at Phoenix's Barrow Neurological Institute to remove a cavernous malformation of the brain. Westmoreland complained of headaches and numbness and left camp on March 4th, and was diagnosed the next day at Massachusetts General Hospital. A number of specialists then confirmed the diagnosis and recommended surgical intervention.

Westmoreland's is a very serious condition, and the fact that his malformation is located within the brain stem puts him at enhanced risk of severe neurological damage, or worse. Says Dr. Joseph Maroon, the vice chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the U-Pittsburgh Medical Center:

A cavernous malformation, Maroon said, "is a congenital abnormality of small abnormal capillaries [tiny blood vessels] that are connecting vessels between the arteries and veins.

"These capillaries have very thin, weak walls and are susceptible to bleeding because of their thin walls. And the cortex, or brain stem, is an extremely sensitive area from which to remove [the malformation]. It's very unusual to find these abnormalities in the brain stem."

Neurological damage resulting from a cavernous malformation could affect movement and eye function, depending on where the malformation is located, Maroon said.

The malformation is typically embedded in normal tissue. "The tissue of the brain stem is extremely sensitive to disruption,'' he said, "and thus requires meticulous dissection."

Westmoreland's procedure will be performed by Dr. Robert Spetzler, who has performed comparable procedures on several occasions before, with good results. And to round out the sad story, this will not be the first operation of Westmoreland's life - he had shoulder surgery in late 2008, and surgery on a broken collarbone in late 2009.

Better to end on a good note, though, so Daniel Barbarisi offers some optimism:

FORT MYERS, Fla. –– The surgery that top Red Sox prospect and Rhode Island native Ryan Westmoreland will undergo Tuesday carries significant risks, but odds are that the former Portsmouth High star will come out of it alright and even be able to resume a baseball career, according to Rhode Island Hospital’s top neurosurgeon.

“The risks are pretty small, meaning that the chances are, he’ll go through this and recover just fine,” said Curtis Doberstein, the hospital’s interim chairman of neurosurgery.

Read how Sox fans are responding at Over The Monster, and read up on cavernous malformations at Web MD.