RIMS surgeons restore tongue of cancer patient
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, December 01 2023: A team of RIMS doctors led by Department of Plastic Surgery head and associate professor Dr AK Ibohal Singh and assisted by Dr P Manisana, Dr Angelica L (Asst Prof.) and Dr Manish R (senior resident, ENT) undertook the daunting task of conducting operation to remove cancer from the tongue of a 36-year old mother of two children from Song Song village in Senapati district on November 17 .

In a release, RIMS media advisor Phillip Singh informed that the operation lasted for 7 hours as administering anaesthesia was not easy due to presence of the sizeable tumour on tongue (4.1 x3.7x3.2 cm) of the patient.

Informing that a team of anaesthesiologists led by professor S Sarat Singh and Dr I Joyshankar performed awake fibre optic nasal intubation to put tlje patient to sleep, the release elaborated that after removing 60 per cent of the tongue along with draining lymph nodes from the neck, the plastic surgeons harvested tissues from the forearm known as free radial artery forearm flap, folded it into the shape of a tongue and fixed it to the remainder of the tongue with sutures.

Thereafter, to restore blood flow to the flap, the blood vessels in the flap (radial artery and cephalic vein) were joined one by one to the blood vessels in the neck (facial artery and external jugular vein) through the technique of micro vascular anastomosis using the microscope.

Two weeks after the major operation, the patient is absolutely hale and hearty and has started accepting liquids orally and can speak although with some difficulty, the media advisor conveyed.

The operation was made possible with the collective efforts of doctors, theatre nurses (nursing officers Ch Rita Devi, M Pramod), OT technicians and other ancillary staffers, it added.

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