Delhi doctors remove shwanomma with robot-assisted ENT surgery in female

New Delhi - A 41-year-old woman suffering from rare schwannoma in the neck (parapharyngeal space tumour) was successfully treated with robot-assisted surgery in Delhi.

Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals performed a robot-assisted ENT surgery after Babli Bhati, was presented at the hospital on June 4 with progressive swelling of the neck for the past two months. Post-admission, a contrast MRI was done where the doctors discovered that Bhati has shwanomma (tumour) in the neck measuring A3.8 cms.

The doctors said that the surgery of a neck schwannoma is a challenging procedure, as these tumours arise between delicate areas of large blood vessels and critical cranial nerves in the neck and any kind of dissection if not done with accuracy can result in lifelong morbidity to the patients.

Additionally, 14 per cent of such tumours if not removed at an early stage can be malignant, causing head and neck cancers. "Bhati's tumour in the neck was progressive in nature, and because of its large size it was putting pressure on the cranial nerves present in the neck obstructing her breathing process, had it been ignored for a longer time, there were chances of the tumour turning cancerous," Dr Kalpana Nagpal, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said in a statement.