7kg tumour removed from 56-year-old woman’s stomach in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Doctors of city-based Gateway Clinics removed a tumour weighing 7kg from the abdomen of a 56-year-old woman recently.
The patient was diagnosed with retroperitoneal sarcomas, a rare tumour, about two years ago. Doctors of a hospital, where she had initially taken treatment, had advised her not to undergo surgery because of the location of the tumour.
“When she was diagnosed, the size of the tumour was just nine centimetres.But it grew up to 30cm and weighed 7kg. It had spread to vital organs like kidney, urinary tract, a section of small and large intestines and uterus,” said Dr K Sendhil Kumar, a surgical gastroenterologist and laparoscopic surgeon, who operated the woman. “As it was growing quickly, we needed to remove it at the earliest.”
A team of doctors including four surgeons and two anesthetics operated the woman a week ago. “As the tumour was located on a mainstream blood vessel, which carries blood from the lower part of the body to the heart, the operation was considered very risky. The team had to be careful and identify each vessel so as not to disturb the mainstream blood vessel. The operation lasted seven hours,” Kumar said. “To remove the tumour without leaving any residue, we had to remove the right kidney, uterus, ovary and a portion of both the intestines. Even if a small portion of the tumour was left behind, it would spread quickly.”
The woman would soon be relieved of all discomforts right from walking to eating.
The hospital had removed the world’s heaviest ovarian tumour weighing 33.5kg from a 46-year-old woman from Ooty last October, hospital authorities said.