Doctors remove man's giant tumour

2012-01-06 16:02

Hanoi - A Vietnamese man was in a stable condition in hospital on Friday after doctors removed a giant tumour from his right leg that weighed more than the rest of his body, hospital officials said.

Nguyen Duy Hai's massive 90kg tumour was cut away by a team of doctors in a risky operation that lasted 12 hours on Thursday, the France-Vietnam (FV) hospital in Ho Chi Minh City said in a statement.

The patient was still sedated but in a stable condition in the intensive care unit, it said.

In a video released by the hospital after the procedure, five medical workers in scrubs are seen heaving the blood-stained tumour into a yellow medical waste container, which nearly tips over under the weight of it.

Hai, 31, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder, had been living with the tumour since he was four years old.

He had part of his leg amputated when he was 17, but the growth, which was not cancerous, continued to expand, making it difficult for Hai to walk and sleep.

The tumour is thought to be the largest ever recorded in Vietnam, according to state media.

Hai had been determined to proceed with the removal even though the surgery only had a 50 percent success rate, the hospital said.

The operation was led by American doctor McKay McKinnon, who successfully removed a tumour weighing 80 kilogrammes from a Romanian woman in 2004.

McKinnon waived his fee for Hai's surgery, and FV hospital said the remaining costs, estimated to come to 250 million dong ($12 000), will be covered by donations.

- AFP