50-kg ovarian tumour, half the bodyweight of patient, removed at Delhi hospital

New Delhi: A 50-kg tumour, which was half the bodyweight of the patient, has been removed from her ovary at a city hospital here, with the doctors claiming it to be the largest of its kind to be operated in the world.

The 52-year-old New Delhi resident was gaining weight for the last few months and weighed 106 kg.

She recently started having difficulty in breathing, acute pain in her lower abdomen and consequently problem in walking and sleeping, Dr Arun Prasad, senior consultant, Surgical Gastroenterology and Bariatric Surgery at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals said.

With rapid weight gain and increasing complications, the family consulted a local surgeon, who then referred the patient to the hospital.

"Upon investigation, it was revealed that the woman had a giant, progressively expanding tumour in her ovary and this was putting pressure on her intestine (intestinal adhesions) causing acute stomach ache and inability to digest food.

"Additionally, her haemoglobin level dropped to six, causing severe anaemia," Dr Prasad said.

In a three-and-half hour surgery on August 18, a team of surgeons extracted the 50-kg tumour from the ovary.

Elaborating on the case, Dr Prasad said, "In over 30 years of my experience as a surgeon I have never come across a case where the tumour weighed almost half the person's body weight. Previously, the largest case was in 2017 from

Coimbatore where a lady was operated for a 34-kg tumour in her ovary."

"Extraction of a 50-kg tumour was a challenge for the team. More so because the patient had exceptionally low haemoglobin and had to undergo in total six

units of blood transfusion before, during and after the procedure," he said.