Jipmer doctors perform complex surgery on cancer patient

Puducherry: A team of doctors in the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) has successfully performed a complex keyhole liver surgery on a 59-year-old male cancer patient from Cuddalore district.
Assistant professor of the department of surgical gastroenterology Biju Pottakkat said the cancer patient approached the institute four months ago.His large intestine, which was affected by cancer, was removed earlier. But cancer spread to his liver.
He was given chemotherapy besides drugs and other supportive medicines to treat liver tumour. However, a tumour measuring 3cm diameter persisted in the left part of the liver even after treatment. A team of doctors decided to remove the cancerous part of liver.
Generally liver surgeries are performed after making large incisions measuring roughly between 35cm and 40 cm and cutting open the abdomen. The doctors —Biju Pottakkat and R Kalayarasan of the department of surgical gastroenterology — preferred to perform keyhole surgery (laparoscopy). Accordingly, they performed the surgery by making four small holes of 1cm each and removed one-third of liver affected by cancer. S Adhinarayanan led the anaesthesia team.
The doctors used a special equipment ‘Laparoscopic ultrasonic surgical aspirator,’ which was recently bought by the institute. The surgery, which is technically named Anatomic left lateral liver sectionectomy,’ took almost eight hours. The surgery was performed on February 15.