Indian surgeon removes a 4-pound brain tumor from man's head

 

A surgeon in India has removed a 1.873-kilogram (4.1-pound) tumor from a 31-year-old man at a government hospital in Mumbai, India.  


Dr. Trimurti Nadkarni, the surgeon who conducted the operation at BYL Nair Charitable Hospital, described the tumor as the "largest in the world" based on comparative studies conducted by his team.

He added that the surgery, which took place February 14, was life-threatening and tricky, as the tumor was embedded inside the brain. The team waited until the man was stable after surgery before making the news public.

The patient, Santlal Pal is a 31-year-old cloth vendor from a village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. He traveled to the hospital in Mumbai to seek treatment this month. Over the past six months, what had initially been a swelling quickly morphed into a mass that was almost as big as his head, measuring 30 by 20 by 25 centimeters cubed, according to Nadkami.

The tumor's growth had breached the man's skull and was growing under his scalp, said Nadkarni, also professor and head of neurosurgery at the hospital. "The basic size of the tumor was daunting," Nadkarni said. "It was compressing the brain."

Pressure built up within Pal's brain and affected his optic nerve, leading him to lose his vision.