Till about late last year, 20-year-old Mohammed Sariq from a small village in Uttar Pradesh never thought that his constant headaches could be because of a marble-hard tumour which was occupying and compressing all major parts of his brain. This tumour which was successfully removed by doctors at the G.B. Pant Hospital here has also made it to the Limca Book of Records for its size.
“Such a large marble-hard brain tumour has never been reported in medical history till date. Also the surgery performed to remove a tumour this size has never been reported from India or anywhere else in the world as far as our literature search goes. This case has now been published in the Limca Book of Records 2014 in its latest edition,” said G. B. Pant Hospital Director-Professor and Head of Neurosurgery Dr. Sanjiv Sinha.
Giving details of the case, Dr. Sinha said the patient had come to the Hospital in November last year where the tumour was detected. “He was operated two days after Christmas last year and is now doing fine,” said Dr. Sinha.
“The operation was a major challenge because the removal of such a large tumour can lead to further brain damage and even death. The tumour was stone-hard and attached to major vessels and venous sinuses,” explained Dr. Sinha.
The patient went through excessive blood loss while the tumour was being removed which led to a sudden fall in his blood pressure. “This was managed by blood transfusion. Usually such large tumours require ultrasonic surgical aspirator for decompression but in this case it was removed with the help of a bone scalpel by cutting a part of the tumour in pieces and later the whole tumour was removed. The size of the tumour was 15cmx7cmx7cm excluding the part excised with bone scalpel which had dimension of 5cmx4cmx4cm,” said Dr. Sinha.
“The patient is now doing well and is relieved of headache. It is important to note that the headache should not be ignored and one should not take analgesics like analgin, brufen, aspirin without medical consultation. It may otherwise prove to be dangerous as in this case,” said Dr. Sinha.
