UAE doctors remove 4.65kg football-sized tumour from a patient’s stomach

Surgeons at NMC Specialty Hospital in Abu Dhabi have successfully removed a football-sized 4.65-kilogram tumor from a 60-year old Indian male patient during a six-hour marathon surgery late last year – making it one of the hospital’s biggest surgical accomplishments in 2022.

When spread on the table after the operation, the tumor was over 12 inches in width. NMC doctors said: “It was resected (removed) intact – without leaving any residue – sparing the patient’s vital four structures, including his colon, small intestine, right kidney, and a major blood vessel. The patient had minimal blood loss and did not require any transfusion.”

The patient, Yusuf Miya Ismail Ustad, is a carpenter. He is married with and has two grown-up children. He had no lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes or obesity, but he had been suffering from abdominal pains for over half a year before he decided to visit his doctor in October last year.

A CT scan confirmed the presence of a large tumor inside Yusuf’s stomach, located under surface of his liver to the right side of his pelvis. NMC doctors said: “It was encasing Yusuf’s right kidney, pushing the duodenum (part of the intestine connected to the stomach) and right-side colon (the longest part of the intestine) to the left of the midline.

Liposarcoma

The NMC doctors said Yusuf’s case is called liposarcoma, a rare type of cancer that develops in the fatty tissue. Liposarcomas are cancerous tumours that are incidentally found once they snowball into a large size within a year,” they noted, adding: “The gold standard treatment protocol is a complete resection (surgery or removal of the tissue).

A multidisciplinary team composed of a surgical gastroenterologist, a urologist and tumor surgeons discussed his case and accordingly

Dr Nagendranath, surgical gastroenterologist at NMC Specialty Hospital and part of the surgical team, said: “Yusuf’s tumour was quite large – almost occupying more than 50% of his abdominal cavity. It was closely associated with four important structures, including his colon, duodenum, right kidney and a major blood vessel called the inferior vena cava.

Marathon surgery

“We had a six-hour marathon surgery and the tumour was resected en-bloc (removed intact) without leaving any residue. Dr Balasubramanian led the team and Dr Yogesh Harish Bhandari, consultant urology, took care of preserving the kidney from surgical damage. The tumour weighed 4.65 kg, and the patient had minimal blood loss, not requiring any transfusion,” he added.

Doctors said Yusuf had a quick recovery and was discharged from the hospital six days after the successful operation.

Fitter and healthier now

Yusuf thanked NMC Specialty Hospital Abu Dhabi doctors Dr Ramji Swaminathan, head of department and specialist anaesthesia; Dr Balaji Balasubramaniam, consultant surgical oncologist; Dr Nagendranath Chilumukuru, specialist general surgeon; and Dr Yogesh Harish Bhandari, consultant urology.

“My family and I are profoundly thankful to the surgical and the nursing teams at NMC Specialty Hospital. I now feel much fitter and healthier,” he added.