JOIN USDoctors at the AIIMS removed a goitre weighing 2.916 kg from a 60-year-old woman recently. This is the largest goitre to have been removed in India so far, said doctors at AIIMS. There is no record of goitres as large as this being removed in medical literature, they said.
Noorjahan, a resident of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, was relieved of this giant swelling in 20 years. The woman comes from a poor socio-economic background and did not see a doctor in all these years as she could carry on with her normal activities.
The woman had no problem in breathing and none of her vital organs were affected. But if it was delayed further, her organs could have suffered, said doctors.
Though goitre cases are common, this case is unique because of the giant swelling. The patient is a mother of eight children. Though there is no direct connection between the multiple pregnancies and the large swelling, it might have been a cause of trigger, said doctors.
“The multiple pregnancies and lactation cannot be cited as a direct cause for such a large swelling. But it can be one of the causes of trigger,” said Dr S Chumber, Professor, Dept of Surgery, AIIMS.
“It was a challenging surgery we had to modify the techniques of the surgery. The trachea, oesophagus and main vessels of the neck were close to the swelling,” said Dr Chumber. The patient was brought to the hospital on May 20. On June 8, the patient underwent the six-hour-long operation. She was released around 12 days after the operation.
“The vital organs were stable in the post-operative state. She developed oedema (swelling of tissue due to fluid) two days after the operation. But that was soon controlled,” said Dr Pratyusha Priyadarshini, senior resident doctor, Department of Surgery.
The woman’s voice was back to normal soon after the operation. The normal weight of a thyroid gland 10-25 g. If a gland is above 30 gm, it is usually goitre. Though doctors have removed goitres weighing between 400-800 gm, goitres weighing over a kg are rare. Two other cases of removing huge goitres were reported in Germany and Sudan in which goitres weighing 5.11 kg and 4.7 kg were removed respectively.