A team of doctors from the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery RIMS successfully removed a large tumour in the oral cavity at the newly constructed modular operation theatre on October 19.
A release issued by RIMS stated that the tumour was removed by a team led by the head of department, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery RIMS Dr Ak Ibohal Singh and assisted by Dr P Manisana Singh; Dr L Oken Singh; Dr Nehar Sinam; Dr Manish Rajpurohit and Dr Shishi Elangbam.
The release stated the operation took around eight hours to complete owing to the sheer size of the tumour and administering anaesthesia was an equally daunting task.
Professor S Sarat Singh, Dr T Hemjit Singh, Dr M Brajagopal Singh, Dr I Joyshankar, Dr Anita Gurung performed endonasal intubation and monitored the patient minutely throughout the 8 hours of operation, it stated
The patient is from Mantripukhri and is in his 50s. He had diagnosed a case of cancer inside the left cheek (Buccal Mucosa, near the gingivobuccal sulcus), which was presumably a result of his age, an old habit of chewing tobacco, it stated.
The patient was admitted to the recently inaugurated Burn Unit and worked up. His cancer had already encroached onto his lower gums, alveolar bone of the lower jaw bone (mandle), underlying cheek skin and the lymph nodes in the left side of the neck. But, this didn't discourage the reconstructive surgeons of RIMS Hospital to go ahead with the challenging operation, the release stated.
In the operation, the left cheek, lower teeth on the left side, the upper portion of the mandible and all the lymph nodes on the left side of the neck (Level I to IV) were removed. The defected part was reconstructed by a free radial artery forearm flap harvested from the no-dominant (left) forearm, fashioned into a bipaddle by folding onto itself, so as to recreate both the skin as well as mucosa. Later, the blood vessels of the flap were joined to those in the neck through a painstaking process of microvascular anastomosis.
The operation was also assisted by a team of theatre nurses, namely A Asha, Eloni Susan, H Shoroshoti and T Desikanta.
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