Doctors Remove 222 Fibroids From 34-Year-Old Woman's Uterus In New Record Incident

The doctors at a hospital in India removed 222 fibroids from a 34-year-old woman's uterus in a record incident.

The surgery took place in Sakra World Hospital in the southern state of Karnataka. Ritika Acharya, a journalist and former TV anchor, was admitted to the hospital in September after she suffered from several health issues in addition to her stomach becoming the size of a seven or eight-month pregnant woman, The Times of India reported.

Acharya was also anemic, and had been suffering from fatigue and breathing problems for nearly two years.

“There were people all around me asking if I was pregnant, and it really affected how I felt about myself,” Acharya said at a press conference Tuesday, according to local media reports.

The surgery, which took almost five hours, was successfully completed when doctors removed the benign growths from Acharya’s uterus, weighing about 5.5 pounds. The hospital believes this was a record surgery for the most fibroids removed. Before this, the Guinness World Record was for a total of 186 removed from a woman in Egypt in 2016.

The surgery was headed by Dr Shanthala Thuppanna, a senior consultant and head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department at Sakra.

“It’s a very common problem affecting numerous women, and doesn’t require surgery but in her case, we found a cauliflower-like growth on the walls of her uterus and had to remove it,” she told the media, according to The New Indian Express.

Uterine fibroids are a common condition in women of reproductive age, Thuppanna said, adding they are usually non-cancerous growths on the walls of the uterus.

"The fibroids were near important structures in the abdomen, which made the surgery complicated as they appeared like bunches of grapes. We were able to remove all the fibroids in her uterus that appeared compressed in the MRI scan, without any complications,” she explained.

If untreated in this case, complications could result in anemia, clotting, fatigue, pressure on the organs due to the size of the growths and a bulging stomach.

“I was hesitant to go to hospital because of the pandemic scare,” Acharya reportedly said. “I wasn’t able to do any bending exercises though I led a pretty active lifestyle. It took me two years to actually consult a doctor.”

“I’m still recovering from the mental stress of the fibroids in my body, but otherwise I feel great. I don’t know if I’ve broken a Guinness World Record, but it’s not for something I’m very proud of,” she added while speaking about her recovery.