Doctors remove 5kg hernia at city hospital

PATNA: Doctors at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) on Friday removed a huge traumatic hernia of 5kg from the abdomen of Shorab Khan (44) from Buxar.

IGIMS medical superintendent Dr Manish Mandal, who led a team of two surgeons and two anaesthetists along with technicians and nurses, conducted the five-hour long operation. He said the herniation was so large that the patient was forced to carry it in a bag slung on his right shoulder. “The patient had four bullet injuries at the sight of the hernia, which was operated upon, but the hernia still developed. Nobody was ready to operate it after the herniation developed out of proportions. Time passed and he kept ignoring it. This is a very rare case we have come across. I searched the literature for examples and couldn’t find any,” he said.

Shorab had received the bullet injuries nearly eight year ago due to which he developed a phantom hernia, which is caused due to a nerve injury leading to the muscle weakness and ultimately resulting in a hernia, said Dr Mandal.

An excess skin had also developed over the hernia which had to be removed and the damaged portion of the intestine required a mesh. “We had to order the mesh from outside the state as such a large mesh is not easily available,” he said and added that although the operation was a success, they would keep the patient under 24-hour observation.