Rare tumour removed from five-month-old's abdomen

Rare tumour removed from five-month-old's abdomen
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NAGPUR, APRIL 25: A two-hour-long surgery was performed at the Department of Surgery, Government Medical College here on Sunday to extract a 1.7 kg `fetus in fetu'- a rare abdominal tumour - from a five-month-old baby girl.

The team of doctors who handled the case have claimed that the case is one of the very few in the world. They said that it might be the only 51st of its kind of tumour ever operated upon in medical history and the first in the GMC.

The `fetus in fetu' is a rare type of abdominal tumor in which parts of human body in various stages of development are seen. The tumour in this case showed malformed limbs - one foot and two hands with extra fingers other malformed organs like brain, kidneys, intestine and also a tuft of hair.

The rare tumour and the case was presented to local mediapersons by the team of GMC which diagnosed the case and performed the surgery. The main surgery was led by Dr B S Gedam, professor of surgery, while the diagnosis was mainly handled by Dr Kishore Taori of Department of Radiology.

Five-month-old Neesha was brought to the GMC here on April 11 from Bhandara with complaint of a severely distended abdomen - which had started growing since the last two and half months. After performing the plain X-Ray and then going in for ultrasound and C T Scan, the diagnostic team led by Dr Taori clearly indicated a rare case of `fetus in fetu'.

The baby was taken for operation on April 22 and following a more than two hour long surgical procedure, the team came out with the 1.7 kg tumour. The case of `fetus in fetu' was confirmed as the tumour clearly showed malformed limbs and other human organs in different stages of formation.

The anaesthesia was given by Dr Malti Phadke and team. The baby is presently recovering in the recovery room of GMC.

Explaining the rare condition, Dr Gedam said that the particular kind of tumour develops due to a partial genetic abnormality, wherein the totipotent (or plueripotent) cells of the body - which have organ forming potential - start an abnormal activity to form extra human organs in form of tumour.

In Neesha's case the tumour grew to a size of 1.7 kg within two and half months and took up almost the entire abdominal cavity pushing back the normal organs including liver, kidneys and intestine. Though the baby did not face any problems of breathing, feeding or digestion, the over distended abdomen had become a cause of worry.

Dr Taori, Dr P R Dange, Dr Samit Pathak, Dr Nilesh Agrawal, Dr A R Pandit, Dr Prashant Rokde and Dr N M Meshram were present at the press conference.