Israeli Hospital Removes Tumor from an Infant

In recent news, the Ichilov Hospital in the State of Israel removed a tumor, which was 10 cm in size, from a two-week-old baby. As per the reports that surfaced on the tumor, it was revealed that the issue was discovered when Anat, the mother of the baby, had shown up for her appointment at the hospital. She was there to get scanned for completing 32 weeks of her pregnancy. During the scan, the doctors assigned to her had noticed that the circumference of the torso of the infant was larger than usual. The doctors took action right away by sending the mother to be tested further. The consequent tests conducted revealed that the baby had a tumor. 

After discussion with more doctors, the experts on her case recommended to Anat to continue with her pregnancy as per the routine. Until week 39, she was consistently monitored and tracked to ensure that everything was normal. However, a couple of weeks after, a cardiological test had revealed that the child’s situation had worsened. Immediately, the doctors decided to act and carry out a C-section. Two weeks later, it was Prof. Igor Sochtonik, the chair of the pediatric oncology department of the Ichilov Hospital, who took the final decision to remove the tumor. Once the operation was complete and successful, the good news was announced. 

The baby was then sent to the NICU, back to where he had been kept. Within 10 days of the operation, the infant and the mother returned home in top-notch health. Sochtonik was later on questioned and asked to divulge further details of the baby’s condition. The professor stated that even before the birth of the baby, it had been diagnosed with a tumor in the liver, which was of a benign mertoma type. Soon after birth, he added that all the doctors assigned to Anat’s case noticed that there were a couple of cysts present on the tumor, which was causing added pressure to the infant’s abdomen. 

It was at this point that he and the other doctors realized that if they waited too long, the baby would be unable to breathe. Moreover, the pressure in the diaphragm, the bleeding, and the bursting of the cysts could also cause respiratory issues. Thus, the experts unanimously decided to carry out the challenging procedure. Sochtonik appreciated the efforts of Dr. Dana Carol and Dr. Yivgeni Izital, who took on the responsibility of anesthetizing the baby. He revealed that this is an especially difficult process when a baby that young is being given an anesthetic. 

Further discussing the tumor, the professor added that the tumor had been taking up a majority of the space on the baby’s right side of the liver, and that it was 10 cm long. In his words, a tumor that long is enormous in an infant and therefore, the right side of the liver had to be cut out to remove the whole of the tumor. He lauded the efforts of Dr. Goikman and Prof. Nir Lovski, who had been instrumental in the removal of the tumor.