A 51-year-old man with two tumours in the abdomen equal to the size of a large watermelon and a football has been successfully operated upon, doctors here said on Feb 28.

The bilateral adrenal tumours are "the world's largest adrenal tumours removed so far", doctors at Hospital, Saket, said in a statement.

The tumours measuring 20 x 20 cm (right side) and 12 x 10 cm (left side) in size and weighing 4.5 kg and 1 kg each were located deep in the upper part of the abdomen at the top of the kidney where the adrenal is situated. Adrenal glands normally measure about 2 cm in an adult.

The tumours were so huge that they made the patient's abdomens protrude outwards and displaced internal organs around them.

The patient, a resident of Bihar was admitted to the hospital with complaints of loss of appetite, constipation for 2 to 2.5 months and abdominal distention. The doctors removed the tumours in a complex surgery that lasted six hours.

"The surgery was very challenging because the tumours occupied the entire space in the patient's abdomen and had displaced organs such as kidneys, liver, spleen, pancreas and intestines and there was hardly any space to manoeuvre. There was a risk of damaging vital organs during the surgery," Professor and Head, of the Department of Urology & Renal Transplant and Robotics at Hospital in Saket said in a statement.

"We performed bilateral adrenalectomy and removed the tumours safely," he added. The patient was discharged five days post-operation and is now doing well, the doctor said.