New Delhi: A team of eight doctors at Apollo Hospitals, Ahmedabad, surgically removed a 47-kilograms tumour from a 56-year-old woman. The tumour is claimed to be the biggest non-ovarian tumour to have ever been surgically removed in India, according to media reports.
For 18 years, the woman had been carrying the tumour, and was bed-ridden for the past few months, the woman’s son told the Times of India (TOI).
The team of doctors included four surgeons and was led by Chief surgical gastroenterologist Dr Chirag Desai. They removed abdominal wall tissues and excess skin weighing around seven kilograms during the surgery.
The woman experienced unexplained weight gain in the abdominal region 18 years ago. Subsequent sonography revealed a benign tumour. It was found during the surgery that the tumour was attached to internal organs as a result of which the surgery was discontinued.
This caused the size of the tumour to continue growing. It almost doubled in size in the past two years, affecting the quality of her life.
“We could not weigh the patient before surgery as she could not stand straight. But after the operation, she weighed 49 kg,” Dr Desai was quoted as saying in a report by TOI.
He further said: “The removal including the tumour – in our parlance retroperitoneal leiomyoma – weighed more than her actual weight. This happens rarely.”
Dr Desai said that all her internal organs were displaced and that the heart, lungs, kidneys, the uterus had got pushed aside by the enlarged tumour in the stomach wall, the TOI report stated.
After more than a fortnight of post-operative care, the patient got discharged on Monday.