Medics in Italy have removed an ovarian cyst weighing a whopping 66 lbs from an obese 58-year-old woman.
The operation took place in the Italian port city of Bari, located on the Adriatic coast in the southern Puglia region, and lasted six hours, according to the Giovanni XXIII Hospital in a statement they sent Newsflash.
The 30-kilogramme (66-lb) ovarian cyst proved to be so heavy for the woman that she reportedly had trouble breathing.
The hospital said in a statement that the massive cyst was such a threat to the patient’s life that they operated on her “urgently”.
The team of doctors at the Gynaecology and Obstetrics unit of the hospital’s Bari Polyclinic, headed by Professor Ettore Cicinelli, was led by Professor Luca Maria Schonauer, a specialist in gynaecology. He was assisted by Dr Giuseppe Muzzupapa and Dr Nico Picardi.
The images, which were provided by the hospital, show the doctors standing around the patient, whose engorged abdominal cavity can be seen prominently bulging upwards as she lies on the operating table.
Professor Schonauer is quoted as saying: “It was a fairly long operation, lasting over six hours, because we first had to empty the cyst which, due to its large size, was not manipulable and then detach it from the peritoneum.”
Dr Katarzyna Trojanowska, a specialist in anaesthesia, assisted by her colleague Dr Eva Moretti, was in charge of administering anaesthetics to the patient. The hospital statement said the patient was “very high risk” when it came to administering anaesthetics, but did not elaborate.
The woman, who has not been named but is 58 years old, was reportedly suffering from obesity and chronic bronchopathy, a condition that restricts the passage of air into the lungs.
The operation, which was performed on 13th August although the statement was released on 30th August, was a success and the patient is recovering at the hospital and is under observation.
Dr Trojanowska said that it was a “difficult clinical case that occurred on special days in August when part of the staff was on holiday.”
She added: “We all did our best, regardless of holidays and shifts. It was an exceptional team effort.”
While it was very large, this ovarian cyst was by no means the largest ever, as a surgeon in Texas holds that record after removing a 328-lb ovarian cyst from a patient in 1905.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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