NEW DELHI: A 66-year-old Iraqi woman had 53 stones removed from her salivary duct and gland, doctors from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said on Thursday.
According to the hospital authorities, the patient from Baghdad was suffering from recurrent attacks of pain and swelling of the right parotid gland after having food or a drink, which had severely restricted what she could eat.
The patient was diagnosed with multiple stones in her right parotid duct, with the largest stone, about 8 mm in size, stuck midway between the origin and the end of the duct.
According to Dr Varun Rai, ENT consultant, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, the biggest challenge was to remove all the stones without causing any injury to the gland or the thin (3 mm-wide) duct.
“The stones were removed painstakingly, one by one, using baskets and forceps without any cut in the body. The entire procedure took two hours,” he said. Review of worldwide literature showed that a single parotid gland having “more than 25 stones within the parotid duct is not previously reported”, Rai said.
Most doctors she had consulted in Iraq had suggested removal of the parotid gland, which would have left a scar on the face and likely would have left her face paralysed, the hospital claimed.