Rajendra Prasad Aggarwal is a 69-year-old man from Sector 8 Rohini in New Delhi, India. In May, he went to BLK Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi with complaints that included mild fever, headache, post nasal discharge, face and eye swelling and nose bleeding. His combined symptoms also led to a slight distortion of his face.
Aggarwal was admitted and made to take a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Both the MRI and biopsy revealed he was suffering from a rare case of cancer called Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, which is caused by secretory glands. The cancer had spread across his face and neck. This made it difficult for the doctors at BLK Super Speciality Hospital to determine where to begin the tumor removal.
Several specialists from various departments—anesthesiology, neurology, surgical oncology and reconstructive surgery—pooled their expertise together to execute an elaborate plan to remove the tumor and reconstruct the patient's face.
"It was also found that the cancer has spread across the face. We decided to approach the tumor from both above and below the face thereby ensuring complete tumor removal without producing damage to the brain [and] nerves," said Dr. Kapil Kumar, who heads the hospital's Department of Surgical Oncology.
The surgical removal of the tumor was successful. The next step was to reconstruct the patient's face. A team of surgeons filled in the gaps and holes, and reshaped the face to its original contour. The surgery lasted for 12 hours.
Another team led by onco-reconstructive surgeon Dr. Sandeep Mehta reconstructed the lost cheekbones using a biomaterial called "Biopore." The material is available in sheets and can be cut, shaped and contoured to fit over the deformed areas such as cheekbones and nasal bone. The contoured material fit well. The doctors took some of Aggarwal's temple muscle to fill in his cheeks.
The labor intensive surgeries gave his face brand new life after an illness nearly destroyed it.
The doctors commented that Aggarwal's tumor removal and facial reconstructive surgeries were both a massive and marvelous medical success.
