Doctors at Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre (MMHRC) here, for the first time, performed a laparoscopic surgery to remove adrenal gland tumours.
The doctors at a press meet on Monday explained the surgery performed on a 33-year-old woman who developed bilateral pheochromocytoma, a rare condition of tumours occurring in both adrenal glands.
As the regular surgery — partial adrenalectomy — could preserve the gland function while making the patient depended lifelong on medications after the surgery, the doctors said, they decided to proceed with cortical-sparing adrenalectomy surgical technique, through which they removed the right side adrenal gland and spared the cortex of the left side adrenal gland so that the patient would not develop hormonal deficiency.
The doctors said the procedure demanded precision and exceptional surgical skills and it was successful as the patient’s blood cortisol level continued to be normal even a month after the surgery indicating the normal functioning of the left adrenal cortex.
Ramesh Ardhanari, medical director, head and senior consultant, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, said, “The size of the tumour in the right adrenal gland was 10 cm and that of the one in the left gland was 2 cm.”
“By adopting the cortical-sparing adrenalectomy, we spared the normal functioning cortex of the left adrenal gland. Otherwise, the patient would have had to be under steroids for the rest of her life,” Dr. Ardhanari added.
Kannan, medical administrator, MMHRC, said if not for the advanced surgical techniques and multidisciplinary collaboration in managing complex medical conditions, the rare surgery would not have been possible.
