City doctors save Kolkata woman with huge tumour in uterus

Bengaluru: The Gynae Oncology Department of Narayana Health City has saved a 30-year-old from a rare condition. The patient was suffering from a large cancerous tumour in the uterus which had not only affected the functioning of her uterus, it had affected her legs as well. The team of doctors at Narayana Health City, Bengaluru, successfully removed the tumour and saved her life.

Hailing from West Bengal, the patient was brought to Narayana Health City with complaints of pain in abdomen along with swelling of the right foot. During examination the doctors found the presence of a tumour in the uterus.

They advised her to undergo a surgery. However, when she was taken to a hospital in her hometown, a team of doctors there found her to be inoperable as there was a suspicion of involvement of the blood vessels, especially of external iliac artery (blood vessel which supplies the blood flow to the leg), veins and the ureter.

The patient came back to Narayana Health City.

Though a high risk one, Dr Rohit Ranade, Dr Robbie George, Sr Consultant Vascular Surgery and Dr Saurabh Bhargava, Sr Consultant Urology and team had taken it up.

Speaking about the case, Dr Rohit Ranade, Gynaecology Oncology Consultant and Robotic Surgeon, Narayana Health City, said, "When the patient visited us, she was barely able to walk as the tumour was compressing her nerves. The tumour was around 20 cms and it covered the vein which takes the impure blood back to the heart. In fact, the deoxygenated blood from the leg was not going back to the heart and this made her leg swell. It even affected her ability to walk. Further, the nerves which are responsible for the functioning of the muscle were also obstructed owing to the tumour. Any delay in treatment would have resulted in tumour affecting the artery or causing severe bleeding inside the abdomen and eventually leading to death. Another causality would have been her leg, lack of appropriate treatment would have led to the leg becoming completely dead. We removed the tumour completely along with the vascular structures (external Iliac vessels and the ureter) and did a vascular reconstruction and ureteric reimplantation."

"Though an eight-hour long surgery, we managed it successfully with the help of our team consisting of gynaecology onco surgeons, vascular surgeons and urological onco surgeons." added Dr Rohit.

The patient did not have any major neurological or vascular damage and recovered well. The patient was discharged within six days post-surgery.