Doctors remove tumour bigger than size of baby’s heart in rare surgery

Doctors remove tumour bigger than size of baby’s heart in rare surgery

DurgeshNandan.Jha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:11.08.2021

In a rare surgery, doctors at Delhi’s Apollo Hospital recently removed a tumour that was attached to the surface of the heart of a newborn. It was bigger than the baby's heart itself, doctors said.

Dr Rajesh Sharma, senior paediatric cardiac surgeon at Apollo, said it took them nearly two hours to remove the tumour. “The heart has a surrounding membrane called pericardium. This tumour was within the pericardium and was attached to the aorta. We had to be very careful while operating on the two-day-old baby and see no surrounding organs and tissues were damaged,” said Sharma.

The mother, a resident of Noida, was in the 20th week of pregnancy when the tumour was detected in the foetus. Operating on the foetus could have increased the risks, so the doctors decided to wait till after delivery to surgically remove the tumour.

At birth, the baby weighed a normal 3.2kg, but had trouble breathing. He was immediately intubated and put on a ventilator. A CT angio showed a giant intra-pericardial tumour that was pushing the heart to the left and compressing the lung. The baby’s condition was precarious and, therefore, an immediate surgery was planned. “The tumour was so big that the child’s heart wasn’t visible. Also, any attempt to remove the tumour would cause a fall in the blood pressure. We had to put the child on a heart-lung machine to remove the tumour in one piece,” Sharma said.

An intra-pericardial teratoma arising from the heart of a foetus is an "exceedingly rare tumour". A major concern with such a tumour is the life-threatening pressure that it exerts on the foetus' heart and lungs, the hospital authorities said.

Dr Ashutosh Marwah, paediatric cardiology surgeon at Apollo, added that there have been no significant deleterious effects of the tumour on the lungs or heart. “Though the tumour removal is supposed to be curative in most cases, in this rare case the baby will need regular follow-up with tumour marker levels and echocardiographic examinations.” For now, the baby has shown good recovery and has been discharged in a healthy condition, the doctors said.

CARDIAC SURGEON SAYS

The tumour was so big that the child’s heart wasn’t visible. We had to put the child on a heart-lung machine to remove the tumour in one piece