A woman in India is thought to have had the world's largest ovarian tumor removed by surgeons. The growth weighing 50 kg (110 lbs) made up 45 percent of her total 106 kg (233 lbs) body weight.
The unnamed 52-year-old woman had complained that she had rapidly gained weight, 7News reported. She also suffered from breathlessness and pain in her lower abdomen which made it hard to walk and sleep, according to the Hindustan Times. It took surgeons three and a half hours to cut away the benign growth.
Before the procedure, doctors had to give the woman a blood transfusion as she was severely anaemic, meaning her haemoglobin levels were low, according to 7News.
Dr. Arun Prasad, senior consultant for surgical gastroenterology and bariatric surgery at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in the city of Delhi, led the operation. He told 7News he had never dealt with a similar case in his three-decade-long career, saying he was "shell-shocked" by the woman's condition.
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"With a low level of haemoglobin, it was a major task for the doctors [to operate]. However, we did our best, and eventually succeeded," Prasad said. "We should consider it as a miracle that the woman is recuperating well after being operated on for over 180 minutes."
Prasad told The Times of India the last known largest ovarian tumor was recorded in 2017, when a woman in the Indian city of Coimbatore had a 34 kg (74 lbs) growth.
The woman treated by Prasad was diagnosed five months ago, but her surgery was delayed due to the lockdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. The cause of the tumor was unknown.
"Luckily for the woman, she did not have any life-threatening complications in the five months when the tumor was progressively expanding in her ovary even as it put pressure on her intestine and other organs," Prasad told The Times of India.
As the tumor was so large, Prasad said his team had to use traditional surgical instruments during the operation as there was no room to insert other, more modern tools.
According to the Hindustan Times, the woman has recovered and was due to be discharged Saturday.
Team member Dr. Abhishek Tiwari, a consultant in surgical gastroenterology, told the Hindustan Times: "Fortunately, the tumour was benign and the patient had no co-morbidities, which enabled a faster recovery."
According to the University of Colorado, benign ovarian tumors are most common among women of childbearing age, and develop in around 50 percent of women with irregular menstrual cycles, and 30 percent of those with regular cycles.
A stock image shows surgeons working on a patient. Surgeons in India have removed a huge tumor from a woman's body. A stock image shows surgeons working on a patient. Surgeons in India have removed a huge tumor from a woman's body. Getty
