Tumour weighing 22kg removed from TN woman’s uterus

CHENNAI: Doctors in Chennai’s Stanley Medical College Hospital removed a monstrous and non-cancerous tumour, weighing about 22 kg -- nearly the weight of a nine-year-old child -- from the uterus of a 41-year-old woman in a five-hour surgery in September last year.
On Wednesday, when Akshaya Jennifer visited the hospital for a review, a team of general surgeons said they decided to talk about the case, not just because it was a surgical fete or because it could be one of largest tumours doctors in the country have ever seen. "We wanted to say ignoring doctor visits and going for self-medication could be dangerous. And such surgeries can improve quality of life," said hospital dean Dr S Ponnambala Namasivayam.

Ever since doctors removed the fibroids, or uterine leiomyomas of the uterus, Jennifer has been able wear some of her old clothes, move around the house like she used to. "I have been living alone, and this surgery has made a huge difference to me. I wish I had not waited till the tumour got this big," Jennifer said as she smiled and posed with her doctors to the flashing media cameras.

Fibroids may grow big to the form a bulky mass that can distort and enlarge the uterus. In 2018, the medical journal BMJ Case Reports reported a case where doctors removed a 28kg tumour, similar to the Jennifer's, from another woman's womb. In 1888, doctors removed a 63.8kg fibroid from a patient during postmortem. Among patients who survived the procedure, the largest fibroid reported weighed at 45.5kg.

Although it may not have symptoms initially, some women complain of pain, excessive bleeding during menstruation and frequent urination. Jennifer met doctors because the fibroid's weight had made it difficult for her to breathe and when she could no longer move around.

It took up the entire abdominal and pelvic cavity and extended up to the diaphragm. To remove the fibroid, doctors performed a surgery where they her uterus, ovaries along with the fallopian tubes. "We took out about 15kg of liquid and a 7kg mass,” said hospital’s head of general surgery Dr Gayathre Muthukumar.

Jennifer ignored all the symptoms although she could hardly move. “It has been there for at least five years. I ignored it until my brother-in-law and his wife insisted I meet doctors. I came here because most doctors I met said it was inoperable,” she said.