BENGALURU: A 58-year-old woman who was leading a normal life started seeing signs of bloating in her abdomen, making her look like a pregnant lady. She ignored the bloating for about six months thinking she had been putting on weight. After a few days she felt that her uterus was coming out of the vagina, that was when she consulted a doctor.
On visiting the doctor, she was diagnosed with tumour at the back of her abdomen. She then consulted a gynaecologist, where the doctor said that she had a uterine prolapse and her uterus had to be removed. However, on looking at her bloated stomach the doctor suspected something was wrong with the patient. She was asked to undergo an ultrasonography, where the problem was not clearly sighted. Thereafter she went for a CT scan, where a huge tumour was clearly visible at the back of her abdomen, called retroperitoneal liposarcoma.
A team of oncologists carried out a six-hour complex surgery to remove the tumour. It was more than 12 inches long and weighed about 9 kg. “We were shocked to see such a huge tumour. It was situated on the left and had pushed all the left organs, like the pancreas, kidneys, spleen and even intestines, to the right. The uterus was prolapsing cause of the huge mass effect, which was pushing the uterus.
The surgery took long as it was a big tumour and we had to also put back all the organs which had moved away from its place. In addition, the uterus also was removed as the patient had reached her post menopause stage,” said Dr Shabber S Zaveri, Consultant Surgical Oncologist and Robotic Surgeon.
Post surgery the lady was given medicines. In a week’s time she recovered and was discharged successfully. However, according to the doctor if there was further delay in diagnosing the problem, the tumour would suppress the intestine, and that could lead to starvation. It would also push the diaphragm and compress the lungs, which would lead to breathlessness.