Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Doctors in AIIMS Bhopal surgically removed a giant tumour of the pancreas weighing 4.3 kilogrammes. Notably, normal pancreas in adults weigh only 50–125 grams.
The patient had been suffering from non-specific abdominal complaints For more than a year, but she assumed the problems were due to acidity and constipation. She even ignored the continuous increase in her abdominal size.
When she finally consulted the doctors in the AIIMS Bhopal OPD, they discovered a massive tumour in her abdomen. Further investigations confirmed it to be a rare pancreatic tumour, one of the largest reported in medical literature, measuring about 23 cm in size.
This giant tumour was blocking the blood vessel from the spleen and had created a bunch of veins (gastric varices) in her stomach, causing a condition known as portal hypertension. Due to this, the spleen had to be removed along with the affected left portion of the pancreas.
The patient was also very thin and the massive tumour had occupied most of her abdomen, making it difficult for the doctors to operate around it.
The doctors said that some types of pancreatic tumours were common in females. These often grew slowly and produced vague symptoms, leading patients to ignore them for a long time. By the time medical help was sought, the tumour became very large and made treatment more difficult, they said.
