In a rare case, two massive tumours - a football-sized one on the left of the abdomen and a watermelon-sized one on the right -- were removed from a 51-year-old patient by doctors at Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket. The hospital claims that the bilateral adrenal tumours are the world’s largest adrenal tumour so far. Doctors say the tumours were so huge that the patient’s abdomen protruded outwards and had put pressure and displaced the internal organs around them. The six-hour surgery was successful and the patient was released five days later. He is doing well, visiting the hospital for regular health check-ups and is getting hormonal replacement therapy for efficient functioning of the adrenal glands, where the tumours originated. The tumours, measuring 20 x 20 cm (right side) and 12 x 10 cm (left side) in size and weighing 4.5 kg and 1 kg each, were located deep in the upper part of the abdomen at the top of the kidney where the adrenal gland is situated. Adrenal glands normally measure about 2 cm in an adult. The 51-year-old patient, Bivash Chandra Tivari, is a resident of Bihar and had come to the hospital with complaints of loss of appetite, constipation and abdominal distention. He had been battling this condition for two months and had consulted doctors at hospitals in Patna where the tumours were detected. But given their size and complexity, he was advised to consult Dr Anant Kumar, Professor and Head, Department of Urology & Renal Transplant and Robotics at Max Super Speciality Hospital. Dr Kumar and his team evaluated the patient and decided to go for bilateral adrenalectomy. “The tumours stemmed from the adrenal glands which are an important structure in the body. They release three important hormones which are essential to the body. Even other vital body parts, including the stomach and intestines, were badly compressed and were pushed to one side because of the large size of the tumours,” he explains. “The surgery was very challenging because the tumours had occupied the entire space in the patient’s abdominal cavity and had displaced organs such as kidneys, liver, spleen, pancreas and intestines. There was hardly any space left for us to manoeuvre while avoiding the risk of damaging vital organs during the surgery. We performed bilateral adrenalectomy and removed the tumours safely,” says Dr Kumar.
