Miraculous Surgery: Doctors Remove 2.5kg Thyroid Gland from Elderly Woman | Mumbai News

Mumbai: Doctors from BMC-run Sion Hospital removed a “huge” thyroid gland weighing 2.55 kg from an elderly woman who couldn’t breathe or eat normally for the last couple of years because of the growth.
The woman suffered from a condition called hyperthyroidism, in which the thyroid gland produces excessive hormones.
Her symptoms started almost 20 years ago when her husband died, but she hid the growing thyroid gland on her neck using her saree or dupatta all this while.
“This growth is called goitre. In this patient’s case, she had multinodular goitre,” said Associate Professor Dr Ranjeet Kamble, who operated on her on Thursday, December 5, at the civic hospital located in Sion.
The patient’s goitre grew to an enormous size (27 x 20 cm), but she was so frightened about undergoing surgery that she delayed it until the symptoms made it difficult for her to swallow food or breathe easily, said the doctor.
Sion Hospital Dean Dr Mohan Joshi said that this was the second-largest thyroid gland ever recorded to be removed in India; earlier, an AIIMS-Delhi team removed a gland weighing 2.9 kg.
The surgery was a challenge right from the start as Senior Anesthetist Dr Aparna Nerurkar intubated the patient, whose oversized thyroid narrowed her windpipe.
As the thyroid pushed the surrounding structures out of place, surgeons had to be careful in identifying and protecting critical blood vessels, nerves, and the parathyroid glands, which regulate the body’s calcium levels.
The entire thyroid gland was removed without any major damage to the surrounding structures in the neck. The doctors said that the slightest mistake could have proved fatal for the patient.
The patient was shifted to the ICU for post-operative care. “Her recovery has been extraordinary. Within hours, she was able to breathe on her own and even consume food without the assistance of a feeding tube. For the first time in years, she could eat and breathe freely, without fearing suffocation or starvation,” said the dean.
The patient is likely to remain in the hospital for another three to four days.
“As her thyroid gland had to be removed, she will have to be on thyroid hormone replacement medication for the rest of her life in order to maintain normal metabolism,” said Dr Kamble.
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) IV (2015-2016) reported that 2.2% of women and 0.5% of men aged 15-49 had a self-reported goitre or thyroid disorder.