Chennai: Marathon ENT surgery removes skull base tumour of Dubai expatriate

Chennai: A 60-year-old expatriate from Dubai, diagnosed with rapidly growing, infiltrative, highly vascular skull base tumour of the right side, got the much needed respite after he successfully underwent an ENT surgery lasting 13 hours, doctors who operated on him said on Thursday.

His condition, prior to surgery, was marked by hearing loss, persistent headache, pulsatile tinnitus and unprovoked bleeding from the right ear associated to the painful enlargement of the tumour mass. Also, he had progressively worsening difficulty in phonation, acts of swallowing and breathing difficulty, doctors at the Institute of ENT, Head & Neck Surgery, MGM Healthcare, here, said.

Announcing the successful outcome of the surgery for advanced skull base vascular tumour resection, the hospital said Shankar had visited many specialists in UAE and India and was contemplating remedial treatment at a centre of excellence. "However, after a thorough discussion and research with his friends and professional colleagues, he chose MGM as the preferred destination under Prof Dr Sanjeev Mohanty, Head, Institute of ENT, Head & Neck Surgery," a release from the multi-speciality quaternary care hospital said on Thursday.

A clinical examination revealed soft mass popping out of the right external auditory canal which bled on touch and was pulsatile in nature. Corroborative radiology findings confirmed the presence of a large highly vascular skull base tumour occupying the region of the right jugular foramen compressing the important cranial nerves which aid in the physiology of speech, swallowing and breathing.

Based on the clinical and radiological findings, Dr Mohanty concluded that surgical treatment was the only available option for a complete cure but was fraught with imminent complications, especially neurological deficits post-operatively, a release from the hospital said.

"After a thorough surgical planning, a modified trans temporal-trans mastoid surgical approach with facial nerve transposition and blind sac closure was adopted and the entire tumour was excised in toto," Dr Mohanty said. The patient's skull base tumour was completely removed which was confirmed in the post-operative radiology scans too, he added.

"Intra-operative bleeding was within controllable limits and all the important cranial nerves were identified and physiological functions preserved after the tumour excision," he explained.

The patient's stay in hospital was uneventful and he was discharged after a week, the hospital said.