Indian doctors removed 53 stones from salivary duct of Iraqi woman

An Iraqi woman was operated to remove 53 stones from her salivary duct by Indian doctors on November 7. The 66-year-old woman went through a two-hour surgery at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. She was suffering from reoccurring attacks of severe pain and swelling of the right-sided parotid gland after having any meal. The hospital said in a statement that the woman has been placed with severe restrictions on what she could eat. Dr. Varun Rai, the ENT consultant at the hospital revealed that the biggest challenge was to carry out the surgery without causing any damage to the thin-layered gland of 3 mm.

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Largest stone about 8 mm

After the diagnosis, the Baghdad native was found to have multiple stones in the right-sided parotid duct with the largest stone being about 8 mm in size and was stuck midway between the origin and end of the duct. The 53 stones were removed by the doctors from the salivary duct and gland. The stones were removed 'painstakingly' one by one and took nearly 90 minutes to complete the operation without any cut in the body. Furthermore, Dr. Rai even said that it was the first time that more than 25 stones were detected within the duct. 

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Iraq had a radical procedure

Reportedly, most of the doctors the woman had consulted in Iraq and neighbouring regions had radical procedures to remove the parotid gland. The removal would have resulted in an inevitable scar on the face and there were greater chances of leaving the woman with her face partially paralyzed. The 66-year-old travelled to India when she heard about a process called 'sialendoscopy'. The procedure performed by Indian doctors involved insertion of small endoscope measuring 1.3mm into the duct and thus, the cause of obstruction is directly addressed. The Iraqi woman had one large stone detected bt the CT scan surrounded by several smaller stones. The parotid glands are a pair of salivary glands located below and in front of each ear canal. 

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(With PTI inputs)