A giant cervical tumour was successfully removed from a woman's womb at a Delhi-based hospital with the help of a technique that used a combination of two operations, said hospital authorities today.
For the last 10 years the patient, aged 47 years, complained of abdominal pain and abnormally high bleeding at menstruation, which is termed as menorrhagia. Later, in January 2018, she was brought to a Delhi-based hospital, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH).
"On her abdominal examination, a large firm mass was felt corresponding to 34-week's gravid uterus (foetus of 34 weeks in womb)," said a hospital statement.
While investigating the abdomen of the patient it was found that the tumour had grown into a giant size, 23 cm x 23 cm x 16 cm and weighed four kilograms. "It was occupying the space from depth of the pelvis up till four inches below the breast bone and was adjoining the liver," said the hospital spokesperson.
Calling the case as "unique in many ways", Dr Debasis Dutta, a senior consultant at SGRH, said the tumour, being cancerous, had to be removed completely. Simultaneously the blood loss had to be reduced and limited, for which they planned 'hybrid technique'.
According to the spokesperson, the main challenges that the experts faced during removal of the tumour was its size, the risky position and chances of it being cancerous.
They used laparoscopic hysterectomy for minimizing the blood loss, and laparotomy was performed for total removal of the tumour along with the uterus due to high suspicion of malignancy in the mass, the statement said. It took three hours to complete the operation and the woman lost half-a-litre of blood during the surgery.
"Due to the use of the hybrid technique, there was no injury to adjoining vital organs like the bladder, the ureter or the bowel loops as seen in other similar cases reported previously in literature," said Kanika Chopra, Department of Minimally Invasive Gynaecology, SGRH.
