Abu Dhabi: An Iraqi patient has had his eyelids removed and restored as part of a procedure to get rid of multiple tumours in his eyelids.
The patient had been diagnosed with the rare cancerous tumours in his upper and lower eyelids, and treating doctors at the Mafraq Hospital decided to remove the eyelids completely in order to stop the spread of the tumour, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha) announced in a statement issued on Saturday.
“It was an extremely rare case, and we are happy that the patient is now doing well. The patient had been suffering from severe facial deformities due to the tumours, but their removal has helped restore his face,” Dr Khalid Abu Haliqa, consultant ophthalmologist at Mafraq, told Gulf News.
The patient is a long-term resident of the capital. With his consent, doctors decided to remove the eyelids completely as he had previously undergone other procedures to remove the tumours but none of them had proved successful at stopping their relapse.
At Mafraq, the eyelids were replaced with new eyelids made of a combination of artificial and natural skin. These provide the flexibility of natural eyelids, and allow the eyes to be closed completely.
Similar procedures have been used in the past to repair damaged fingers, arms and legs, but this is the first time eyelids have been reconstructed in this manner at Mafraq, said Miqdad Al Hammadi, consultant for plastic and burns surgery at the hospital.
“We mainly used the skin from the patient’s shoulders, and it took two surgeries to complete the removal and restoration process for both eyes,” Dr Abu Haliqa said.
The patient also underwent chemotherapy to prevent the reappearance of the tumour. He has now been discharged and doctors are following up with him to ensure that he remains cancer-free.
