Cancer Patient gets New Lease of Life with “HIPEC” Surgery at A J Hospital
Mangaluru: Over the years, AJ Hospital & Research Centre has established an impressive track record of path-breaking surgeries and procedures and now it has one more such surgery to its credit.
59 year old male, hailing from Tumkur was given a new lease of life at A J Hospital and Research Centre. He was suffering from a relatively uncommon condition called Pseudomyxoma Peritonii and was operated in a private hospital in Bangalore 4 years back. Patient presented with history of gradual distension of abdomen and recurrent pain abdomen.
After appropriate preop preparation patient was successfully operated on 14/08/2018 by a team of doctors headed by Consultant Surgical Oncologist Dr. Vishwanath at A J Hospital. After a marathon surgery, which lasted for more than 18 hrs, the doctors could completely remove the tumor. The team of surgeons included Consultant Surgical Gastroenterologists Dr. Rohan Shetty and Dr Ashwin Alva. It was followed by administration of heated chemotherapy into the abdomen through Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) machine at a temperature of 42ºC for about 90min.
The amount of chemotherapy drug was calculated by Consultant Medical Oncologist Dr. Rachan Shetty. The administration of heated chemotherapy directly into the peritoneal cavity helps in destroying the cancer cells not visible to the human eye. Another advantage of HIPEC is that high dose of chemotherapy drug can be administered with lesser systemic side effects since the drug is in direct contact with the cancer cells, thereby destroying only the cancer cells. The patient was thoroughly monitored during the entire procedure by Dr Trivikrama Tantry, who headed the Anaesthesia team.
It was complex surgery since the disease was involving most of the vital organs, part of which had to be resected (multivisceral resection) according to Dr Vishwanath. Patient was discharged from hospital on 12th day in a stable condition. HIPEC is a new treatment option which has been recently recommended in certain malignancies like ovarian, appendiceal and colorectal cancer. It has shown benefit by increasing the overall survival.
The procedure has been performed by a dedicated HIPEC apparatus successfully and hope to perform this procedure quite frequently in future for the benefit of patients. A.J. Hospital is fully equipped with all the necessary equipment and the expertise for treating such conditions. We expect to reach more patients from Coastal Karnataka and Kerala region, otherwise travelling to far off places to avail treatment for such conditions.
Dr. Vishwanath has undergone advanced training in Cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC from the National Cancer Centre, Singapore.
For further details regarding this surgery, you may please contact Dr. Vishwanath, Consultant Surgical Oncologist at 8123567396.