ASPS member leads team that excised 180-pound tumor
ASPS member McKay McKinnon, MD, Chicago, (pictured at right) was the lead surgeon in the successful effort to remove a 180-pound tumor from the leg of a neurofibrosis victim in Vietnam. Dr. McKinnon returned to the United States nearly a week after the Jan. 5 operation, which required nearly 13 hours of operative time, according to London's Daily Mail newspaper.
See video from the procedure here.
Nguyen Duy Hai, 31, has suffered from Von Recklinghausen's neurofibromatosis tumors since age 4, and the current growth had exerted a dangerous toll on his cardiovascular system, according to CNN.com.
Dr. McKinnon told a Vietnamese website that among his goals for the surgery was the removal of the tumor's origin at the site of origin, in order to dramatically reduce the possibility of recurrence, the Daily Mail reports.
Dr. McKinnon performed the procedure at no cost to the family. Hai underwent a similar, though much less drastic, operation in 1997, wherein a smaller tumor was targeted but ultimately unsuccessfully removed; in that procedure, the lower half of his right leg had to be amputated, according to the newspaper.
Jean-Marcel Guillon, MD, chief executive officer of France-Vietnam Hospital in Ho Chi Mihn City, told CNN.com that another tumor may in fact appear, but "we can operate on him again, and it won't reach that size again."
It's expected that Hai's intensive care stay will last for several weeks and be followed by months of physiotherapy, the Daily Mail reports.
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