Doctors remove spinal cancer tumor through patients eye

A young Maryland woman is “relieved and recovering” after doctors performed a novel surgery to remove her potentially deadly cancerous tumors.A surgical team at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) extracted the tumors, which had wrapped around the spinal cord, through the patient’s eye socket.This was the first time surgeons removed a spinal tumor using a “transorbital” approach, according to a UMMC press release.Karla Flores was just 19 when she was diagnosed with a chordoma, which is a developmental bone tumor, in her spine. At 18, Flores started experiencing double vision, ultimately leading to her diagnosis months later. Chordomas are very rare, with only about 300 cases occurring in the U.S.each year.“The tumor was wrapped around the patient’s spine and spinal cord and had invaded the vertebrae in her neck, just below the base of the skull,” according to Mohamed Labib, M.D., neurosurgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center and assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.“The primary risks were injuring the brainstem, spinal cord, or major blood vessels with the drill or the fine instruments we used — any of these injuries could have resulted in paralysis or even death,” Labib told Fox News Digital. “But without surgery, the chordoma could have continued to grow and put intense pressure on the spinal cord.

This, too, would have paralyzed her arms and legs and eventually killed her.So, you can see how the stakes were very high with this procedure.”The surgeons created a “huge surgical corridor” through the eye socket that enabled them to get in front of the spinal cord. “It was a straight shot,” Labib said.“By going through the bottom of the eye socket, we were able to remove a tumor that otherwise would have been very difficult and very risky to address.”During the procedure, Labib worked with a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Kalpesh T.

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