New non-invasive tumour treatment

17 June 2011

A Royal Melbourne Hospital surgeon has removed a tumour from a Melbourne woman’s adrenal gland using a virtually painless, minimally invasive procedure.

The Victorian-first posterior retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomy (PRA) method required only three small incisions in her back.

The PRA procedure was so successful that the patient, Doris Zammit, 68, of Broadmeadows, spent only one night in hospital. She needed no pain medication, other than a single paracetamol tablet, to relieve minor discomfort.

In the 80-minute operation, specialist endocrine surgeon Julie Miller reached Mrs Zammit’s adrenal tumour – just above her left kidney – by a direct route through three tiny incisions on her back, just below her ribcage.

Guided by a small thin camera, Dr Miller created a space filled with carbon dioxide gas to see around the tumour.

Using a LigaSure electrical vessel-sealing device, Dr Miller was then able to perform the delicate task of excising and removing the four-centimetre tumour – a normal adrenal gland measures less than a centimetre.

“Until now, patients requiring the removal of one or both adrenal glands would be required to submit to a larger procedure with access to the adrenal glands from the front of the body through the abdominal cavity,” said Dr Miller.