Man afflicted with rare genetic disorder has first surgery

In a major debulking procedure, a team of doctors at the Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) has successfully removed 15kg of a 40kg tumour from the thigh of a young man afflicted with a rare genetic disorder.

Debulking is the reduction of as much of the volume of a tumour as possible by surgery. Hailing from the industrial town of Nooriabad in Sindh’s Jamshoro district, 20-year-old Muhammad Essa Pallari is afflicted with a rare nerve tumour, plexiform neurofibroma.

He is admitted in the CHK’s Surgical Unit-I that is headed by eminent surgeon Prof Dr Naushad Shaikh. Led by Dr Shaikh, a team of general, plastic and orthopaedic surgeons performed the first of Pallari’s surgeries on Wednesday.

“The patient is stable and would undergo five to six more surgeries in the coming months to be able to walk and live a normal life,” Dr Shaikh told The News after the surgery at the CHK’s OT Complex.

Doctors had earlier estimated that the tumour weighed around 30kg, but after the surgery, they now believe that the mass could be over 40kg in weight. Dr Shaikh was accompanied by CHK Medical Superintendent Dr Muhammad Taufiq, Additional Medical Superintendent Dr Arif Niaz and OT Complex Incharge Dr Bilal Ahmed. Shaikh said that during the four-hour-long surgery, they removed a chunk of tumour weighing 15kg.

The CHK administration said they were sending part of the removed tumour for a biopsy or histopathological examination. “If the report confirms it’s cancerous, the course of treatment will be changed completely, but if it’s found to be benign, more surgeries or debulking will be carried out,” said Dr Shaikh.

Doctors said it was the largest manifestation of plexiform neurofibroma that was ever seen in the history of the country, weighing more than 40kg and requiring multiple surgeries costing millions of rupees to remove it completely from the patient’s body.

Dr Shaikh said there were chances that the tumour could re-grow after its removal, but he made the assurance that the patient would remain under observation and not be abandoned.

Dr Taufiq congratulated Dr Shaikh and his team of surgeons for the successful procedure, observing that the CHK was the only hospital in the country where such a complicated and costly surgery was carried out free of charge.

Pallari’s family was visibly overjoyed following the successful removal of part of the tumour. They said the young man wanted to commit suicide because of his suffering, but the family, especially his younger sisters, persuaded him to hold onto the hope of one day being able to live a normal life.

“Dr Shaikh has proved to be an angel for us to breathe new life into our son,” said Pallari’s father Allah Dino following the young man’s surgery.