Large tumour removed from baby’s chest cavity in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Surgeons at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here successfully removed a large tumour weighing about 500 grams from the chest of a 21-month-old baby, last week.

The baby boy, weighing 8.5 kg, had been losing weight and feeling tired on simple excertion for the past 7 to 8 months, and there were concerns in the child’s family when his oxygen saturation level dipped.

“When we received the baby in our hospital, his oxygen saturation level had fallen below 90 per cent and he had difficulty in breathing,” Prof. Antaryami Pradhan, paediatric surgeon who was part of the medical team, said.

Thorough evaluation of the baby revealed that he had a large 11cm tumour attached to the heart and its major vessels in the chest which is very huge for the child while it completely compressed the left lung, he said.

The hospital constituted a team of doctors drawn from different specialties for evaluation and management of the patient which was guided by radiologists Prof. Satya S. Mohapatra and Prof. Adya K. Panda.

Prof. Pradhan, who was part of the team that conducted the surgery led by Prof. Debasish Sahu, while CTVS surgeon, said it was done by opening up the chest cavity by the clamshell Thoracotomy method since the tumour was large. “We could do complete excision of the tumour after separating it from the heart and lung and there was almost no blood loss during the whole procedure,” he said.

The baby was kept in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) under mechanical ventilation for two days under the supervision of Prof. Debasmita Rath and Dr. Basudev Biswal.

During the surgery, the anesthesia procedure was undertaken by a team comprising Prof. Soumyaa Samal, Prof. Sulochana Dash, Dr. Nupur Moda, Dr. Madhusmita Patra, Dr. Sudeep Mohapatra and Dr. Ramya.

Sasmita Sahoo, Pranati Parida, Radhe (all pharmacists), Biswaranjan Parida, Puspalata Sahu, Bijay, Smrutirekha, Rojalin, Tapan and Bibek Maharana (nurses and OT Assistants) were also part of the team which assisted in the surgery and treatment of the baby.