Another first in Sri Lankan Medical History
27 November 2013 07:24 pm
This operation was performed at the Badulla hospital on a middle-aged patient who had been diagnosed with a cancer in his rectum which had extended up to the liver. This was a dual cancer, and surgeons attending to liver operations of this nature are very few in Sri Lanka
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By R Kogulan and Palitha Ariyawansa
For the first time in the medical history of Sri Lanka an operation was performed to remove a cancerous growth extending from the rectum to the liver, using the Laparoscopic Anterior Resection and Partial Hepatectomy method.
Explaining this process, Cancer Specialist Surgeon Dr Anuruddha Thewarapperuma said, this operation was performed at the Badulla hospital on a middle-aged patient who had been diagnosed with a cancer in his rectum which had extended up to the liver. This was a dual cancer, and surgeons attending to liver operations of this nature are very few in Sri Lanka.
He said, removal of the cancer in two places in the body of the patient entails opening up of the body of the patient, which necessitates a deep and lengthy cut, but with the use of this new technique, the team of doctors had completed this operation within two hours. It was also stated that a deep cut would have caused the patient to lose much blood, but as the surgery was done with a very minor incision, the patient lost only 200 ml. of blood.
Undergoing an operation with the use of this method may be expensive to a patient, but the advantages to him are more beneficial, than those from a normal operation.
Dr. Thewarapperuma acknowledged with thanks, the provision of latest equipment by the Health Miinister and the Badulla General Hospital Director Daya Dharmapriya, and the assistance given to doctors of the Badulla Hospital to perform this type of surgery.
Translated by D. Bernard Edirisinghe