180-gram tumour removed from 75-year-old man's heart in Indore

Indore, Jul 14 (PTI) Doctors in Madhya Pradesh's Indore city have given a new lease of life to a 75-year-old man by removing a 180-gram tumour that had been growing in the right side of his heart for nearly four decades. According to the doctors, this tumour, which is approximately 9.5 centimetre-long, 5.5 centimeter-wide, and four centimeter-high, might be the largest right atrial myxoma surgically removed in the country. Dr Vineet Pandey, Director of the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Medanta Hospital, told PTI on Tuesday that the septuagenarian patient had been suffering from shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, swelling in the legs and abdomen for some time, and his liver function tests were found to be abnormal. The patient's heart tumour appeared small upon initial examination, but after it was removed through a surgical procedure, it was found to be approximately 9.5 centimeters long, 5.5 centimeters wide, and four centimeters high, weighing approximately 180 grams, he said. Dr Pandey claimed that he had never previously encountered a case of such a large right atrial myxoma being removed from a patient's heart. According to him, such tumours in the right side of the human heart occur in only 10 to 15 per cent of cases. The cardiologist said that this disease is typically found in people between the ages of 20 and 40. "The tumour might have begun developing in the patient's body 35 to 40 years ago and gradually grew to this size," he said. Pandey explained that the tumour had grown so large that it had filled most of the patient's right atrium, obstructing blood flow, resulting in breathing difficulties. He said a 15-member team removed the tumor, including its root, in a five-hour operation on July 6. Pandey said the operation was performed free of charge under the government's Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. The cardiologist said, "Had the operation not been performed on time, a part of the tumour could have broken off and blocked a blood vessel in the lungs, potentially leading to the patient's death." He said the patient is doing well after the operation and has been discharged from the hospital. PTI HWP MAS NP