Ovarian tumour weighing more than 30 kg removed from woman

A woman from Costa Rica has had a huge tumour weighing more than 30kg removed from her ovaries in a life-saving operation.The patient had been delaying her surgery for eight years despite warning from her doctors about developing complications including heart attack. She was forced to undertake surgery because she had developed breathing problems and tumour had taken up 80 percent of her abdomen and was pressing her intestines, liver, and diaphragm.According to doctors giant tumours were much more common in women whose bodies are designed to carry more weight in their abdomens than men.

It was difficult for doctors to conduct investigations like CAT scan or clear X-rays because of her size when she was admitted in the hospital. Five surgeons at Hospital Mexico near San Jose removed a tumour, which had a circumference of nearly five-and-a-half feet, and the operation lasted for the two-and-a-half hour . The weight of more than 30 kg and a size of five-and-half feet round growth is a world record.The biopsy of the tumour has been sent for finding malignancy and patient Mrs Lopez is recovering fast.

The attending surgeon Pablo Sibaja told a press conference: “This tumour grew in such a disordered and rapid fashion in such a short space of time that we had to act quickly.“It grew very fast suddenly and was taking up nearly 80 per cent of Sonia’s abdomen.“These tumours that grow so fast are not normally malignant because if they were they would metastasise and they either need to be treated to eliminate or reduce them or they kill the patient before they have the capacity to grow so much.”

A spokesman for the Costa Rican Social Security Service, which tweeted pictures of the tumour after it had been removed, described the procedure as 'incredible'.