Man undergoes high-risk surgery for abnormally huge abdominal body part

    New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) A 30-year-old man got a new lease of life after undergoing a "high-risk" operation for a swollen balloon-sized abdominal body part at a city hospital, doctors said Monday.
    A team of doctors from Institute of Vascular and Endovascular Sciences at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital recently performed the complex surgery for the patient, in whose stomach the main aorta (artery) had swelled to gigantic size of 20 cm (normal size is 17-18 mm), they said.
    "It was like a huge balloon filled with blood which could burst any time and prove fatal. The very high risk operation was subsequently carried out by Dr V S Bedi and team which lasted for four hours," according to a statement issued by the hospital.
    Abdominal aortic aneurysm (ballooning of main artery) is a significant source of morbidity in people above 50 years. Size confers the largest risk factor for aneurysm rupture, with aneurysm size more than 6 cm having an annual rupture risk of 14.1 per cent, it said.
    Giant abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), defined as those measuring more than 11 cm, are rarely described in literature, according to the hospital.
    Bedi, the chairman of Institute of Vascular And Endovascular Sciences at the hopsital, said, "We believe this case represents one of the large AAAs in the literature and demonstrates the feasible approach for successful open repair".
    "We were surprised to see this kind of large aneurysm in a 30-year-old person, as we see this kind of disease in 60-70 years age bracket commonly," he said.
    The patient was presented to the hospital with a history of suddenly enlarging abdominal lump associated with unrelenting pain in the right flank which was diagnosed as a large (20 cm in diameter) abdominal aortic aneurysm with contained leakage of blood from a focal rupture site, the hospital said.
    The patient had consulted doctors at outside hospitals for its surgical treatment but was told that the surgery would entail prohibitive risk to life given the magnitude of the disease and size of the aneurysm, it said.
    "Monitored high dependency intensive care was administered to the patient preoperatively in order to render him fit for the upcoming perilous surgical undertaking which was carried out on June 17 in the newly-built, state-of-the-art hybrid vascular cath lab," the statement said.
    The surgery of aneurysm was preceded by a diagnostic angiogram which demonstrated the large infrarenal (below the kidney arteries) abdominal aortic aneurysm, it said.
     "During the very high risk operation the aneurysm sac was meticulously opened under control and blood flow was restored with the help of vascular graft. Almost one litre (two kidney trays) of blood clots was removed which left a huge cavity in the sac," it said.
     On completion of surgery, the patient was shifted to postoperative ICU where he was extubated on following day after which he resumed normal body functions like eating, walking and sleeping without pain in a span of only two days.
     The patient eventually was shifted out of ICU on the third postoperative day in a stable condition, the hospital said. PTI KND DPB

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from a PTI feed.)