New Delhi: Doctors at the city-based Lok Nayak Hospital have removed a 420 gram salivary gland tumor, and claimed it was the largest of its kind extracted so far.

"So far, the largest tumor reported in medical literature weighed only 87.3 grams. The tumor we removed is seven times bigger in cuboid volume and weighs 420 gms," said Dr Vikas Malhotra, associate professor of ENT and head of neck surgery at Maulana Azad Medical College.

ENT surgeons at Lok Nayak Hospital, who operated on the 28-year-old patient last month and removed the tumor, now plan to get it published in medical journals.

The patient, a native of Moradabad, had come to the hospital in the last week of May. He was unable to accept any solid food for previous three to four months and a week prior to the operation, he had even faced difficulty taking fluids.

"Further, the patient was finding it difficult to lie down or sleep because the tumor was obstructing his respiration," Malhotra said. So in the first stage, doctors performed a surgery in his neck to put in a breathing tube into the trachea or windpipe to help him breathe.

It took him sometime to be stabilised and on June 10 he was operated upon.

"Usually resection of such tumours require splitting of the lower jaw and after the extraction, repair of the jaw using titanium plates. In such kind of operations, the healing takes a long time and there are long lasting dental problems.

"Thus in this case, we did a cut in the neck to resect the tumor. Had he been not operated on time, he would have died with he being unable to breathe," explained Malhotra.

It was a three-hour long surgery, the doctors said, adding, that the patient is now experiencing normal breathing and normal oral intake.

The largest tumor reported so far in medical literature weighed only 87.3 grams which was operated at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Australia and got published in a leading medical journal in November last year.--PTI