Docs remove large tumour from forehead of Sudanese

New Delhi: A 57-year-old man, who had a large tumour growing out of his forehead, underwent a successful surgery at a hospital in Delhi recently.

Babiker Hassabelgawi Ahmed, a Sudanese national, had undergone surgery to remove the tumour on the left side of his head 15 years ago. Until last year, he did not face any problems but he noticed a small nodule over his forehead. Within the next eight months, the tumour increased exponentially in size. Ahmed’s head looked like a unicorn and he started getting frequent seizures, which was poorly controlled with medicines.

When doctors in Sudan couldn’t offer any hope, the 57-year-old came to Akash Super Specialty Hospital where doctors diagnosed him with a rare condition called invasive anaplastic meningioma — a type of tumour that grows fast and spreads to nearby tissues. Treatment involved surgical excision of the tumour or as much of it as possible and radiation therapy, especially if the tumour couldn’t be completely removed.

In Ahmed’s case, the size of the forehead tumour was huge — 6cm x 8cm outside and 18cm x 12cm deep inside the brain. Dr Amit Srivastava, director and senior consultant, neurosurgery at Akash Hospital said MRI and CT scan showed a large axial mass eroding the skull and spreading inside the bone in the frontal sinuses, in between the eyebrows. “We immediately decided to have surgery to remove the tumour and reconstruct the skull and lining of the brain,” the doctor added.

It took 12 hours to remove the tumour, Dr Srivastava said.

Ahmed claimed the surgery has given him a second life.