A team of surgeons at the Mafraq Hospital, Abu Dhabi recently performed a life-saving surgery on a woman with a rare cancer type known as ‘leiomyosarcoma' . The woman had a ‘grapefruit’ sized tumor which grew in the muscle lining of her inferior vena cava and was pressing her abdomen. Surgical excision of the tumor was challenging as it involved the removal of her pancreas, which would make her diabetic. Besides, the risk of bleeding due to any damage to the blood vessel was the major cause of concern for all the doctors. This was when the patient approached Dr.
Salem Al Harthi , the General Surgery Consultant at the Mafraq Hospital . According to Dr. Harthi, this was the first case in his 20-year career where he had seen such a big tumor arising from a major and critical blood vessel. However, Dr. Harthi opted for a technique to excise the tumor without having to remove the pancreas…
