Chennai, Feb 22: A 12-year-old boy from Bangladesh diagnosed with giant nerve sheath tumour measuring 15X15X20 cms covering the entire lower part of the neck, was removed successfully in a 12-hour marathon single-stage surgery by a team of experts at Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai.
According to a press release, the boy’s condition was very critical as the tumour was extending into the left side of the neck and chest cavity. The boy visited the neurosurgery department with complaints of swelling on the left side of his neck above the collar bone which was growing backward towards the cervical spine. He was in pain for the past two years. The tumour had completely destroyed the bones in the lower neck and the major blood vessels on the left side of the neck were encased and displaced by this large tumour. His reports confirmed a giant nerve sheath tumour.
A multi-disciplinary team of doctors led by senior consultant neuro surgeon, Dr Nigel Symss along with senior consultant spine surgeon, Dr PhaniKiran S, senior consultant vascular surgeon, Dr Rajkumar, neuro surgeons Dr Jagannath PM and Dr Aurl K and neuro-anaesthetist & neuro-critical care, Dr Ramana after complete examination and investigations of the boy, decided to remove this large tumour in a single stage surgery.
Talking about the case, Dr Nigel Symss said, ”The advantage of single-stage surgery is less amount of blood loss, less chances of infection, avoiding a second surgery and a shorter hospital stay. These kinds of the tumours are a benign schwannoma and are slow-growing; if not diagnosed early may cause serious neurological deficits and instability of the spine. Giant dumbbell spinal schwannomas are uncommon lesions and their surgical treatment is demanding and challenging, requiring a multidisciplinary team approach for achieving good functional recovery.”
The microsurgical excision of the tumour was performed using a microscope and CUSA. The nerves and major neck vessels around this tumour were delicately separated by the expert surgeons in a 12-hour long single-stage surgery, the release said.
The tumour was removed completely and the destroyed part of cervical spine was stabilized with titanium cage and plate with screws. The patient is recovering well and undergoing physiotherapy and he has no new neurological deficits, the release said.