Mumbai docs remove cancer from woman with reversed organs

Doctors overcame a major medical challenge when they operated on Sangeeta Sharma, 55, who was diagnosed with sigmoid colon cancer. Sharma suffers from a rare birth defect and doctors said the operation was challenging as her major organs are on the opposite sides.

Sharma suffers from situs inversus, a congenital condition in which the major visceral organs such as the heart and liver are reversed or mirrored from their normal positions.

The challenge was to perform laparoscopic surgery on the patient whose liver was on the left-hand side of the body and heart on the right- hand side.

An endoscopy and biopsy showed that Sharma had cancerous tumour in the large intestine. However, it was a CT scan that revealed that Sharma was suffering from this rare congenital defect.

Dr Anil Heroor, onco-surgeon, Fortis Hospital, Mulund, who operated on Sharma stated, “We had to search for her appendix first since it is the starting point of the large intestine. We then tracked it to sigmoid colon, which is the second last part of the cancerous large intestine.”

“We had to be very careful, as the artery which was supplying blood to the cancerous part of the large intestine was in front of the vein. Normally, it’s the other way around,” said Dr Heroor.
It took the doctors three-and-a-half hours to operate on Sharma.

Normally, such laparoscopy surgeries take two-and-a-half-hours.
According to the doctors, a mistake would have either damaged the blood vessels supplying blood to the rest of the intestine or damaged other important organs.

Dr Roy Patankar, gastro-intestinal surgeon, explained how the medical procedure was challenging. “Sigmoid colon cancer is routinely removed via laparoscopy, but Sharma’s case was challenging because of the rare congenital defect. The sigmoid colon, which is normally placed on left side, is on the right side. Thus, it is technically challenging,” he said.