Rupesh Samant

Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji

Panaji, May 25: A rare first-of-its-kind surgery was performed by a team of specialists at Manipal Hospital, Goa. An 8-year-old boy had developed a large tumor in his shoulder blade but the treatment by conventional surgery would mean that he would not be able to move his arm for the rest of his life. To avoid this, the team of specialists treated him with chemotherapy followed by a procedure, which has been done only a few times before in the country, for the shoulder blade called Extracorporeal radiation.

The chemotherapy was done by Dr Jacob George, consultant - medical oncologist, and the very intricate and delicate procedure was performed by Dr Eugene Rent, consultant - surgical oncology, Dr Srimanth B S consultant orthopedic oncology, and Dr Gunjan Baijal, consultant - radiation oncologist.

Speaking about the surgery, Dr Eugene Rent said, “Going the normal surgery way would have made his arm dysfunctional and we wanted to avoid this as the patient is very young and it would hamper his way of living. We decided to surgically remove the shoulder blade and then treat the removed bone with radiation. The sterile bone was then put back and all the muscles were stitched back in place. The final result was the shoulder is saved and he will have normal movement with no tumor.”

Dr Gunjan Baijal commented, “We have seen this done a lot for long bones. As far as I know, we are among a handful of teams outside Bengaluru and Mumbai who perform this procedure on the shoulder.”

Adding to this, Manish Trivedi, hospital director, Manipal Hospital, Goa, added, “Thanks to the team we have at Manipal Hospital, a lot of complex cancer surgeries are being performed with positive results. We do a lot of liver, pancreatic, advanced ovarian, and food pipe cancers with results on par with international centers. Most of our patients like this child are treated free of cost at Manipal Hospital because of the Deen Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana (DDSSY) scheme. I would like to thank the Government of Goa for making quality healthcare services affordable to the people of Goa through this scheme. I would like to congratulate the team of doctors and staff for their efforts put in to make sure the patient has a normal life.”