Mexico Doctors remove 33 kg Ovarian Tumour

The Doctors at Mexico General Hospital have removed a whooping 33 kg (157cm) ovarian tumour from a woman, claiming it to be the world's largest ovarian tumour to be removed as a whole. As reported by Mirror UK, a 24 year women who was suffering from this ovarian tumour was unable to lift her weight. The growth weighed the same as ten new born babies - or roughly equal to the weight of a ten year old child.

The cyst had become so large it was crushing the patients lungs and intestines, putting her at risk of heart failure.

Scans revealed it has swelled to a whopping 5st 3lbs ( 33 kgs) in just under a year

Dr. Erik Hanson Viana, 27, at the Mexico General Hospital, performed pioneering surgery to remove the cyst - believed to be the biggest one ever removed whole - last year.

Dr. Hanson, from Mexico City, told Mirror: "This is the biggest cyst I have operated on, it was so large that it took up 95% of the patient's abdomen.It's really rare to operate on a cyst this big, it measured half a metre in diameter and the circumference was 157 cm."

"From all the research I've found, It's believed that this is the largest ovarian cyst ever to be removed whole, without draining it first or spilling it.

"The largest in history weighed 320lb back in 1902, and took several days to drain, I can't even imagine one that large."

The patient is reported to have been quite overweight, so after starting on a diet, she noticed her face, arms and legs were getting thinner but her stomach was getting bigger.

"When I met her, she could just about walk a couple of steps before getting agitated and feeling like she was struggling to breathe because the cyst was crushing her lungs.

"Some experts say a giant cyst is anything bigger than 10cm, others that it has to weigh over 26lb (12kg) or that it has to be higher than the umbilical of the patient - this cyst was much bigger than all of them.

"If we hadn't operated it would have gotten to the point where she wouldn't have been able to walk, would be severely malnourished and unable to eat.

"It's hard to say how long she would have lived, but it would have been a really bad quality of life.

However now, two days after surgery the patient walked out of hospital.

"Before she was used to carrying 73 lb (33kg) inside her because of the cyst, so movement was like she was levitating or walking on the moon.

"When we saw her six months after surgery to see how the scar was healing and monitor for other problems, she was fully healed.

Due to the complication and largest size, the patient was referred to Mexico General Hospital as a last resort due to the concerning size of the ovarian cyst and complicated surgery needed to remove it.By this point the giant cyst weighed over 5st 3 (73lbs) and was growing at a rate of nearly 6lbs each month.

"She would be full after eating a tiny bit of food and because of the cyst's size, it was harder for food to pass from the stomach.The cyst was also compressing the two main vessels in the body since is a vain and an artery, which could have led to serious heart problems."

Due to its size, Dr. Erik Hanson and Dr. Abel Jalife removed the tumour whole fearing that draining the cyst could put the patient's life at risk.

Up to 20% of giant ovarian cysts are malignant, meaning that if the cyst was pierced it risked leaking tumorous cells into the patient's body.

"Draining beforehand can be dangerous, if any of the fluid spilled it risked contaminating the patient's abdominal wall and spreading tumour cells.

"But to remove it whole is also difficult because the cyst wall is less than one millimetre thin and needs to be prevented from drying out, otherwise it could easily break too.

"There's no real consensus in the medical community about which is the best technique to operate on giant cysts."

Its has been more than six months of the surgery, the patient has now returned to her normal life in a rural part of Mexico, living a day's travel away from Mexico General Hospital.