Doctors at Chennai hospital remove 2.8kg spleen in rare life-saving procedure

Chennai: In a high-risk surgical feat, doctors at SRM Prime Hospital removed a massive 2.8kg spleen from a 23-year-old woman from Bihar. The young homemaker had been struggling with persistent fatigue and weakness for several months. Medical investigations in Bihar revealed abnormalities involving her liver and spleen, prompting doctors to refer her to SRM Prime Hospital in Chennai.

Evaluation at the city hospital revealed a combination of non-cirrhotic portal fibrosis, a condition in which the blood vessels supplying the liver become scarred and narrowed without actual cirrhosis and hypersplenism, where an enlarged spleen becomes overactive and destroys blood cells. Doctors said the condition had severely affected her blood counts and overall health.

The medical team performed a laparoscopic-assisted splenectomy, enabling the patient to recover with minimal surgical trauma and return home within five days of the procedure.

“Abnormal enlargement of the spleen associated with non-cirrhotic portal fibrosis is rare and surgically demanding. The enlarged spleen, coupled with portal hypertension and extremely low blood counts, significantly increased the risk of complications. The distorted anatomy and fragile blood vessels made the procedure particularly challenging,” said Dr R V Sugi Subramaniam, senior consultant.