Newborn baby with body-size tumor
Print Edition
A newborn girl had a huge tumor as big as her body successfully removed at a local hospital and will be allowed home in two or three weeks, doctors said yesterday.
The baby, one of twin girls, received the surgery six days after the delivery as the 20-centimeter-long tumor needed to be removed. Doctors from Xinhua Hospital expect the girl to grow up healthy with only one scar on the hip after the surgery.
Her 32-year-old mother, a Jiangsu Province native who suffered from infertility, received vitro fertilization last year and became pregnant with twins. However, prenatal checks at 16 weeks found a lump on one of the baby’s hips.
Local doctors recommended the family go to Xinhua Hospital, where the lump was confirmed as a teratoma, a tumor made up of several different types of tissue, such as hair, muscle or bone.
“After a thorough check, we suggested the mother to continue her pregnancy for the sake of the girls, as we needed to ensure their health and safety and allow the girl with tumor to grow enough to survive the surgery, because most teratomas are benign,” said Dr Pan Weihua, director of Xinhua’s pediatrics department. “A child with teratoma should receive a surgery within one month after delivery. Or about 30 percent of inborn teratoma will become cancerous.”
Tumors are second leading cause of child deaths, following accidental trauma, data show. Although the occurrence of tumors in children is not frequent, it has been on the rise in recent years in line with the increase in the number of women getting pregnant at older ages. The prevalence of IVF treatment may also be a cause, doctors said.
When the twins were delivered at 35 weeks by cesarean section, the teratoma had grown as big as the girl’s body.
The doctors weighed the removed tumor at 2.1 kilograms, almost the same weight as the baby herself.
“The baby now is in stable condition and recovering well,” Dr Pan added.
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