Doctors Remove World’s Largest Brain Tumor Weighing Almost 4 Pounds

Doctors in India have successfully removed what is believed to be the world’s largest brain tumor, weighing 1.8 kg (3.96 pounds), from a man.

According to a report by The Hindu, a six-hour surgery was performed on Santlal Pal, 31, by doctors at the Nair Hospital, Mumbai, on Feb. 14. The doctors said that the tumor resulted in Pal losing his eyesight but hoped that he would regain his vision now. Pal, post-surgery, is recovering in the intensive care unit at the hospital and is in stable condition.

Dr. Trimurti Nadkarni, the neurosurgeon who did the surgery along with a five-member team, said, “ In fact, the tumor was much bigger than his own head .”

“We have checked all the available medical texts. We have not found any tumor as big as this ,” Dr. Nadkarni added.

The reportsaid that Pal, who is a shopkeeper from Uttar Pradesh, a norther Indian state, had the tumor for the past three years but it started to grow at a very fast pace last year. Only about 10 percent of the tumor developed inside the skull.

Dr. Nadkarni said that the tumor grew out of the skull and the scalp grew over the tumor. “We had to cut open the scalp and remove the tumor. The part of the tumor within the skull was removed by making an opening in the skull.”

The doctors said that the pressure on the brain led to the patient losing his eyesight. They added that if it had continued, it could have resulted in full paralysis and neurological damage.

Pal needed 11 units of blood during the surgery and three days of ventilator support after the procedure.

He had been to three hospitals in Uttar Pradesh before the procedure in Mumbai but the doctors in those places had termed the tumor untreatable. “We are praying that he regains his vision,” his wife Manju said.

According to a reportby the BBC, the news of the surgery was not made public immediately because the doctors were unsure of its success. Dr. Nadkarni said, “ Now it's a matter of recovery but he's [Pal] out of danger .”

The tumor has been sent for tests to detect malignancy (a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without any control and can occupy tissues that are near them), The Hindu reported.

Dr. Nadkarni said that he had removed a tumor that weighed 1.4 kg (3.08 pounds) from a patient at the KEM Hospital, Pune, in 2002.

In 2008, doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi had removed a brain tumor, which was 78 cubic inches, or the size of two baseballs, from a woman. It weighed 1.3 kg (2.8 pounds).