BHUBANESWAR: A team of neurosurgeons at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here successfully performed a critical surgery to remove a rare tumour attached to the tailbone of a newborn recently. The baby boy, born to a couple from Khurda district, had a tumour, which resembled a head with skin, ears and hair. Shocked, the parents rushed the newborn to the hospital. After the baby was examined by paediatricians, a team of neurosurgeons under the supervision of eminent neurosurgeon and SOA’s principal advisor (health science) Prof Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, decided to conduct the surgery.
Prof Mahapatra said, the condition, known as sacrococcygeal teratoma in medical parlance, could be life-threatening and required immediate surgery for the removal of the tumour. It is rare and happens in 1:40,000 live births. “It was a congenital defect and occurred within two to four weeks of conception. The tumour takes shape at one end of the neural tube which develops to be the brain and spinal cord. The tumour in this newborn weighed about one kg,” he said.
Professor of the neurosurgery department Dr Soubhagya Panigrahi said the surgery, conducted under the state government’s BSKY scheme, took nearly three hours. “The tumour that forms on a foetus’ tailbone are usually not cancerous but can be life-threatening if not treated. Most babies do well with surgical treatment after birth. The surgery on the baby was successful. Anaesthetists and the team manning the neo-natal ICU had a significant role,” he said. The condition of the baby is stable and he is recuperating. Prof Ram Chandra Deo of the neurosurgery department and associate professor of the anaesthesia department Dr Prerana Biswal were also involved.