Abu Dhabi: Doctors at Al Mafraq Hospital in Abu Dhabi successfully removed a rare tumour that had grown rapidly in a patient’s ribcage, it was announced on Wednesday.
The patient, a 50-year-old woman, was suffering from advanced stage cancer, which had spread quickly in her ribcage.
The woman earlier had undergone lumpectomy treatment two years back and had the tumour removed.
“After examining the patient’s medical tests, we noticed that the cancerous tumours have spread across the left chamber of the ribcage,” explained Dr Mekdad Al Hammadi, deputy medical director and head of burns and cosmetic surgery department at Al Mafraq Hospital.
“Removing the patient’s ribcage would result in deformity and put her life at risk, because the ribcage protects the vital organs, such as the heart and left lung,” Dr Al Hammadi added.
The medical team conducting the surgery on the patient decided to restore the ribcage, through the transfer of strong muscle tissue from the patient’s body and rebuild the ribcage using microscopic surgery technique. Strong muscle tissue was used to ensure the preservation of the vital organs located behind the ribcage.
“The medical team worked very closely on rehabilitating the patient’s health prior to surgery, as she was taking medications to dilute the blood, which could result in bleeding during surgery and cause death,’ said Dr. Amjad Sherif, thoracic surgery consultant and head of general surgery programme for resident doctors in Abu Dhabi.
The surgery took six hours, in which the tumour of size 15x8cm was removed from the left chamber of the ribcage.
After that, the procedure of restoring the ribcage was the most time consuming, due to its precision.
“I suffered from cancer previously, but I was re-diagnosed with cancerous tumours in my ribcage this time. I was very scared from undergoing surgery, but the doctors reassured me that this was the only way to curb from further cancerous tumours spreading in my body,”said the patient.
“The doctors explained to me that my ribcage will be restored using muscle tissue from my shoulder,” she added.
