Chennai: It is not without reason that Chennai is being hailed as the medical capital of the country. Proving this once again, hospitals in the city have performed three rare surgeries recently. Here are the details.
A team of doctors led by Dr Govini Balasubramani at Fortis Hospital Vadapalani performed a rare lung transplant on a 34-year-old male. The surgery lasted for seven hours where both lungs were successfully transplanted to the patient in spite of the multiple health challenges such as small chest cavity, multiple chest tube insertions on the sides of the lungs and low BMI.
The 34-year-old patient from Punjab was presented at the Vadapalani hospital with a rare familial Interstitial Lung Disease (A group of disorders that cause progressive scarring of lung tissue that occurs in one of every one lakh population). The family of the patient had already lost two of its members because of familial ILD. The patient’s low BMI was the biggest challenge as it was less than the required range for organ transplantation. The average BMI for organ transplant should be 18-32 for the transplant to be successful. The patient was dependent on oxygen support for his survival since past two years and had been in the waiting list of NOTTO. The wait for the suitable lung came to an end, thanks to a donor from Madurai, who met with a fatal accident.
60-year-old undergoes 13-hour procedure
Doctors from Institute of ENT, Head & Neck Surgery, MGM Healthcare have announced the successful outcome of a marathon ENT surgery which lasted for 13 hours for advanced skull base vascular tumour resection in a 60-year old patient from Dubai.
The patient, a 60-year-old expatriate from Dubai, was diagnosed with rapidly growing, infiltrative, highly vascular skull base tumour of the right side. The painful enlargement of the tumour mass was associated with hearing loss, persistent headache, pulsatile tinnitus and unprovoked bleeding from the right ear. He also had progressively worsening difficulty in phonation, acts of swallowing and breathing difficulty too.
Dr Sanjeev Mohanty said, ‘a multi-disciplinary team approach was adopted and the patient was subjected to pre-operative tumor embolisation by the skilful neuro intervention radiology team at MGM. Histopathology further confirmed the nature of this aggressive vascular tumour. Thereafter, a thorough surgical planning was done to avoid intra-operative complications associated with the surgical access to the huge skull base tumour.’
12-hour neurosurgery to remove brain tumor
A team of neurosurgeons at Gleneagles Global Health City, a tertiary care hospital in Chennai, successfully removed an 8-cm tumour involving a complex brain surgery of a sexagenarian lady, hailing from Nellore.
The 65-year-old underwent a 12-hour micro neurosurgery. While the sexagenarian exhibited minor symptoms such as poor memory, behavioural changes and loss of balance while walking (that she had been suffering for the past four months), diagnosis was a challenge as these were interpreted as common age-related conditions by other doctors. The patient underwent a MRI scan which revealed a giant tumour and was informed as inoperable by other hospitals owing to its size, a release said.
According to Dr Ramanan, lead, neuro anaesthesia and neuro critical care, Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai. ‘It was meningioma which is a non-cancerous brain tumour. She was discharged on the eighth day after a short period of rehabilitation and was able to walk independently. Her post-operative imaging confirmed complete removal of the growth which is best treatment for non-cancerous brain tumors.’