Raipur, Jul 26: In a rare surgery, the Doctors at Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Memorial Hospital Raipur have given a fresh lease of life to a 35-year-old man from Janjgir-Champa by removing a malignant chest wall tumour with intra-thoracic extension, weighing around 7 kgs. After undergoing surgery the patient is in ICU of Ambedkar Hospital but his condition is stable.
The tumour rising from five out of twelve ribs had encompassed lungs, stomach and even other vital organs of the body. According to the doctors no such case was reported earlier. There was a high possibility of patient dying on the operation table as the malignant tumor, situated on the chest wall had been encompassing the lungs, exerting pressure and preventing its expansion, thereby limiting entry of air and oxygen. The rare malignant tumour called chondrosarcoma was of size of 35 x 20 cm which was operated from chest wall, said Dr Nishant Chandel, Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeon at Ambedkar Hospital here. This huge tumour was adherent to heart, lung, diaphragm and abdominal organs, said Dr Chandel.
Five ribs which were adversely affected by the tumour had to be removed along with the tumour and rib and chest wall reconstruction was done with the use of ‘bone cement ‘ during the surgery lasting for nearly eight hours at Advance Cardiac Institute Medical College Raipur.
Dr Chandel says that the patient with huge malignant tumour had been visiting him for the last three months. Initially the patient was administered chemotherapy but it was not much effective in reducing the size of the tumour.
Prior to surgery, the patient was referred to interventional radiologist Dr CD Sahu who angiographically blocked the vessels to reduce supply of blood to the tumour so as to reduce vascularity and even size of tumour. In the next 48 hours the patient was subjected to surgery. It was a challenging to perform the complicated surgery. Normally a human chest has 12 ribs. But removal of five affected ribs created a deep hole inside the chest besides making chest wall unstable. Under such circumstances doctors had to implant artificial ribs made of bone cement. Subsequently plastic surgeon carried out muscle flaps. About chance of recurrence of this cancerous (chondrosarcoma) tumour in patient, Dr Chandel said that patient can lead a normal life because spreading potential of chondrosarcoma is very less as it generally leads to local complications. However, after surgery chemotherapy would be administered again to ensure that it does not recur.
