Rare life saving interventional radiology procedure done

Coimbatore, Sep 21 (PTI) A city hospital today claimedto have performed a rare life saving interventional radiologyprocedure on a 46-year-old woman and saved her two kidneys,affected with tumour. The pateint from Kangeyam in Tirupur District came toSri Ramakrishna Hospital with severe abdominal pain andvomiting for past 5 days and her abdomen scan showed largetumours in both kidneys. The CT scan confirmed the tumors replacing 80 per centof left kidney with ruptured aneurysm (weak enlarged bloodvessel) in one of the tumor which was the root cause of allher symptoms. She also had a large tumor on the right side kidney withaneurysm, Dr Sarveshwaran, Senior General Surgeon of thehospital said in a release today. Bilateral renal angiomyolipoma is a benign tumoroccurring in kidneys of middle aged people commonly infemales, he said. Stating that it was not a cancer but can be lifethreatening condition to patient if it ruptured, Sarveshwaransaid that these tumors can rupture spontaneously due to theassociated weakening of blood vessels within the tumor andhence timely diagnosis was crucial for the management. In hospitals where interventional radiology is notpracticed, the patient would have required surgical removal ofboth kidneys followed by kidney transplantation which involvesmajor surgeries in addition to the expense, Sarveshwaran said. The alternative cheaper and safer management for thesetumor is endovascular intervention in which InterventionalRadiologist will block the weakened blood vessel feeding thetumor but at the same time preserving the residual normalfunctioning kidney all done through a pinhole in the groin. Dr PMuthurajan Consultant Interventional Radiologistof the hospital examined the patient and did the endovascularinterventional procedure to block the tumor blood vessel underTamil Nadu Chief ministers health scheme. "This is an advanced procedure which is not availablein many hospitals and is done under local anesthesia wherethe patient is conscious all throughout the procedure withoutrisks of general anesthesia," Muthurarajan said. The procedure not only saved her life but also avoidedthe major surgeries and preserved her kidneys. Patient and her family members were immensely happyduring discharge and wondered how the major procedure was donethrough a pinhole without a surgical scar, he said.PTI NVMRC