Surgeons remove 'largest' chest tumour with robotic surgery

New Delhi, Dec 19: Surgeons at a city hospital have performed a minimally invasive robotic surgery to remove what they claim to be the largest thoracic tumour to ever be recorded.

Lakopo Molotii, a 54-year-old native of Tuvalu, a country in the South Pacific, was diagnosed with a large tumour in his chest and was advised to undergo an open chest surgery by doctors.

After learning about robotic chest surgery services in India, he approached the BLK Super Speciality Hospital here where a team of specialists removed the thyroid tumour, of dimensions 12x10 cm, from his thoracic cavity, a statement issued by the hospital said.

The hospital claimed that the procedure performed last week, that lasted five hours and was carried out through robotic intervention, was one of the biggest retrosternal thyroid gland removal surgeries in India. "The tumour, removed last week, was so big that it was compressing the windpipe and had completely involved the vein of the left upper limb with multiple large collaterals over the tumour," said Dr Surender Dabas, Chief of Surgical Oncology and Robotic Services at BLK Hospital.

Dr Ashwani Sharma, Associate Director, Surgical Oncology at the hospital, said the tumour was densely situated between the main arteries arising from the heart. "This tumour could have been removed by cutting the chest bone, but the challenge, in this case, was to remove it with a minimally invasive technique using robotic technology as the patient had especially travelled to India for robotic surgery," said Dr Dabas.

The patient has recovered well and was discharged after four days of operation, the hospital said. Dr Dabas said that the last 10 years have shown a major change in minimally invasive chest procedures for lung and mediastinum (the cavity between lungs) diseases. Mediastinal goitres and ectopic thyroids represent rare chest diseases.

Such ailments were treated in the past through invasive surgical methods, he said. "The evolution of robotic-assisted thoracic surgery seems to offer a valid treatment option also in patients with thoracic and cervicothoracic thyroid correlate diseases," he said, adding that experts have concluded that robotic technology helps in achieving the best surgical results.