A 32-year-old Ethiopian man got a new lease of life after undergoing a surgery for removal of a rare tumour from his abdomen at a city hospital, doctors said on June 20.

The man was diagnosed with the 1.25-kg tumour in the abdominal cavity that had led to displacement of internal structures in his stomach, they said. The operation involved risk as the tumour was entangled between the arteries emerging from liver and spleen. "The rarity of this case, lies in the fact that the retroperitoneal tumour was densely stuck to celiac plexus and enchasing the splenic artery (blood vessel that supplies oxygenated blood to the spleen) and hepatic artery (which distributes blood to the liver, pancreas and gallbladder as well as to the stomach and duodenal portion of the small intestine).

"In such cases, complete excision is not possible normally, if tried, it will injure splenic and hepatic artery which could be fatal to the patient," Vivek Vij, Director, Liver Transplant at Fortis Hospital here, said. The celiac artery is the first major branch of the abdominal aorta. Retroperitoneal tumour occurs in the abdominal cavity behind the abdominal membrane that covers most of the intra abdominal organs.

A tumour that is stuck to the complex network of nerves located in abdomen could lead to injury in splenic or hepatic artery that could cease the blood supply to the liver, he said. Symptoms of celiac artery compression syndrome are typically chronic and nonspecific, including vague upper abdominal pain, nausea, emesis and weight loss in the long withstanding cases.

In a statement issued by the hospital, Sanjay Verma, Senior Consultant, Minimal Access, Bariatric Surgery, said, "In the post-operative period, a USG Colour Doppler test was used to confirm the vascularity of the spleen and the normal flow of blood in the celiac axis and the hepatic artery." The patient tolerated the treatment satisfactorily and recovered well. He was discharged on the fifth day of the post-operative period and is presently doing fine, he said.