The Iraqi women will 53 stones in salivary duct was operated in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (REPRESENTATIONAL)
A 66-year-old Iraqi woman got a new lease of life after undergoing an operation at a hospital in Delhi for removal of 53 stones from her salivary duct and gland, doctors said today.
The recent surgery performed by doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital took two hours, they said.
The patient was a Baghdadi resident. She was suffering from recurrent attacks of pain and swelling of the right-sided parotid gland after having food or drink. This wreaked havoc on her life with her having to place severe restrictions on what she could eat, the hospital said in a statement.
According to Dr Varun Rai, ENT Consultant, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, the biggest challenge was to remove all the stones without causing any injury to the gland or the thin (3 mm wide) duct.
"The stones were removed painstakingly one by one using baskets and forceps without any cut in the body. The entire procedure took two hours," he said.
Mr Rai added that after extensive review of worldwide literature, a single parotid gland having "more than 25 stones within the parotid duct is not previously reported".
She came to India having heard of a procedure called "sialendoscopy" where a small endoscope measuring just 1.3 mm is inserted into the duct of the parotid gland and the cause of obstruction is directly addressed. The parotid glands are a pair of mainly serous salivary glands located below and in front of each ear canal.
She underwent the procedure at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where the endoscopy of the parotid duct revealed that the large stone seen on CT scan was actually a cluster of smaller stones impacted together, the doctors said.