Delhi: Doctors remove 7 kg kidney tumour

In a rare case, a team of surgeons at a private hospital in Delhi successfully removed a kidney tumour weighing a staggering seven kilograms.

Dr H.S. Bhatyal of B.L.K. Super-Speciality Hospital, who performed the six-hour-long surgery on a 35-year-old woman, salvaging 50 per cent of the unaffected kidney, confirmed that this indeed was a rarest of rare case and potentially life threatening.

According to Dr Bhatyal, a tumour of this nature, which is more than 10 cm in size, can be fatal due to the risk associated with sudden internal bleeding. “In this case, the tumour weighed 7 kg and measured 40x25x20 cm in length, breadth and height, and from the sheer size of it, the tumour was potentially life threatening. There is no official medical record or report of such a giant tumour in which successful surgery was carried out by saving parts of un-involved kidney,” said Dr Bhatyal.

Doctors said that the woman came to the hospital with complaints of unexpected abdominal swelling. She had been gaining weight for the last six months and looked like a pregnant woman carrying triplets. She had been advised removal of the right kidney. Doctors carried out a thorough pre-operative evaluation and planned a highly-complicated surgery with extreme precision.

“The tumour was a threat to life of the patient due to its sheer size and location. Even a trivial injury to abdomen might have led to heavy internal bleeding and possibly it could have been fatal for the patient,” added Dr Bhatyal.

Abdominal ultrasound sonography followed by CECT abdomen revealed the presence of a large tumour arising from the right kidney, which is also known as Angiomy-olipoma (AML). In addition to this, there were three more small tumours in the lower part of kidney.

“It is a process where the malformation is removed and the uninvolved part of the kidney is saved,” said the doctor adding that the other three small tumours were also removed to prevent similar kind of growth in the salvaged part of kidney.