Docs remove bone-eating tumour from teen’s leg
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai:12.01.2019
Last February, doctors told a teenager from Bangladesh that a tumour was eating into his leg. On Friday, the 19-year-old walked into the press conference with a slight limp and a big smile. His surgeons had saved his leg and tests showed he did not have cancer.
Rifat Ibane Iqbal had a cricket ballsized tumour — desmoplastic fibroma was rare, fibrous and benign — that was aggressively eating into his bones. “He had terrible pain in his left leg and was not able to walk. He came to us after visiting several other hospitals. All of them had suggested amputation. But during our initial screening we realised the tumour did not seem cancerous,” senior consultant orthopaedic surgeon Dr Kosygan. Less than 10 cases of desmoplastic fibroma in the leg had been documented in medical literature. “We did not have literature to lean on. So we decided to take it step by step. In a four-hour surgery, we removed a cricket ball sized tumour. Nearly 25% of the ankle bone was destroyed,” he said.
Although doctors debated radiation post-surgery, they decided to give him
medicine to help the bone grow and let surgical wounds heal in a conventional way. “His wounds have healed very well,”, said plastic surgeon Dr Kannan Prema.
Her colleague and vascular surgeon Dr K Shashibhushan said medical literature spoke of 15% chances of tumour recurrence. “We will be monitoring him closely at least once every five or six months,” he said. But Iqbal is happy to get back to academics. “I have been away from college for a long time. I want to get back to my BBA course,” he said.
Rifat Ibane Iqbal had a cricket ball-sized tumour that was aggressively eating into his bones
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai:12.01.2019
Last February, doctors told a teenager from Bangladesh that a tumour was eating into his leg. On Friday, the 19-year-old walked into the press conference with a slight limp and a big smile. His surgeons had saved his leg and tests showed he did not have cancer.
Rifat Ibane Iqbal had a cricket ballsized tumour — desmoplastic fibroma was rare, fibrous and benign — that was aggressively eating into his bones. “He had terrible pain in his left leg and was not able to walk. He came to us after visiting several other hospitals. All of them had suggested amputation. But during our initial screening we realised the tumour did not seem cancerous,” senior consultant orthopaedic surgeon Dr Kosygan. Less than 10 cases of desmoplastic fibroma in the leg had been documented in medical literature. “We did not have literature to lean on. So we decided to take it step by step. In a four-hour surgery, we removed a cricket ball sized tumour. Nearly 25% of the ankle bone was destroyed,” he said.
Although doctors debated radiation post-surgery, they decided to give him
medicine to help the bone grow and let surgical wounds heal in a conventional way. “His wounds have healed very well,”, said plastic surgeon Dr Kannan Prema.
Her colleague and vascular surgeon Dr K Shashibhushan said medical literature spoke of 15% chances of tumour recurrence. “We will be monitoring him closely at least once every five or six months,” he said. But Iqbal is happy to get back to academics. “I have been away from college for a long time. I want to get back to my BBA course,” he said.
Rifat Ibane Iqbal had a cricket ball-sized tumour that was aggressively eating into his bones
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