Hyderabad: OGH doctors cure rare syndrome

The patient's blood sugars were repeatedly dropping below 40mg/dl, and she was developing weakness and sweating, more at night and in early mornings

Hyderabad: A woman with the Doege-Pottery Syndrome (DPS), an extremely rare condition across the globe, was successfully treated by doctors at the state-run Osmania General Hospital here.

The DPS, in strictly technical terms, is a paraneoplastic syndrome in which hypoglycemia is associated with solitary fibrous tumours, with the hypoglycemia being the result of tumours producing insulin-like Growth Factor 2, doctors said. The number of reported cases across the world is very few, with the numbers reportedly in single digits in India.

The 62-year-old woman, Khairunnisa Begum, from Kishanbagh, Bahadurpura, was referred to the OGH on February 3 and admitted to the hospital’s surgical gastroenterology department with complaints of weakness, incoherent behaviour apart from abdominal pain and swelling in the abdomen.

The patient’s blood sugars were repeatedly dropping below 40mg/dl, and she was developing weakness and sweating, more at night and in early mornings. A CT Scan of the abdomen showed a huge tumour (20x18x12 cm) occupying three-fourths of the liver. Following this, all necessary investigations like insulin and cortisol levels were carried out.

“We also sent IGF2 (Insulin-like Growth factors) blood tests to the US and confirmed the diagnosis. A biopsy from the tumour confirmed the DPS,” doctors said.

In coordination with the departments of surgical gastroenterology, endocrinology, anaesthesiology and gastroenterology, the large tumour was removed from her liver on March 12.

“It was an extraordinarily complex surgery that went on for 10 hours. After the surgery, her blood sugar has settled and she is getting discharged today (Thursday) in a fit and healthy status,” said Dr Ch Madhusudhan, Professor and Head, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, OGH.

“This surgery would have cost nearly Rs 20 lakh in a private hospital, but with the patient being from an extremely poor background, we extended help to her,” he added.

Apart from Dr Madhusudhan, the team of other doctors included Pandu Nayak, Rakesh Sahai, Ramesh Kumar, Pavani, Madhavi, Jyothi, Sudharshan, Varun, Hemanth, Venumadhav, Pathanjali, along with staffers Sunitha, Subbalxmi, Jasmine, Surya Prakash and Krishna.

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