Russian surgeons have removed a rare neoplasm from a child's eye socket

Specialists of the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital (RCCH) of the Russian Ministry of Health have successfully removed a rare neoplasm from the child's eye socket. This was reported to "Izvestia" by the press service of the medical institution on February 19.

The tumor was rapidly growing and threatened with loss of vision, but timely surgical treatment avoided severe consequences.

The tumor in the 12-year-old girl was discovered in the Republic of Tatarstan. It was rapidly growing and displacing the eye from the orbit. As a result of examinations, doctors assumed that it was a vascular malformation of the orbit, and sent the child to the Russian Children's Hospital for specialized therapy.

During the examinations, the doctors found that the formation was not a vascular anomaly, but only actively supplied with blood from the ocular and maxillary arteries. In such a situation it was impossible to carry out endovascular treatment - the use of intravascular intervention technologies could not eliminate the tumor itself and carried serious risks of complications up to complete loss of vision, the hospital explained.

Invasive surgery remained the only method of treatment. According to specialists, the location of the tumor was a major challenge - it was located deep in the eye socket, surrounded by vital vessels and structures. Among other things, the tumor was adjacent to the optic nerve, damage to which during the operation could also cause blindness of the child. A multidisciplinary team of specialists - maxillofacial surgeons, a neurosurgeon and an ophthalmologist - was formed to develop a plan of intervention and its execution.

Organ sufficiency: how cancer surgeons are saving patients' quality of life

Surgery to remove tumors increasingly allows the body to remain functional

Head of the Interdisciplinary Center for Head and Neck Surgery of the Russian Children's Hospital, Head of the Orbital and Maxillofacial Surgery Department, Dr. Alexander Kugushev explained that orbital neoplasms are extremely rare. According to him, in their surgical treatment, the most important and difficult stage is gaining access to the area of the location of the formation.

"It was a meticulous teamwork, where each specialist of the surgical team took turns performing subtle manipulations: the neurosurgeon temporarily removed the upper wall of the orbit, maxillofacial surgeons - the lateral wall of the orbit, and the ophthalmologist provided access to the area of the muscles surrounding the eye. Then we ligated the branches of the feeding vessels and performed a total resection of the tumor without damaging vital structures and tissues," , he said.

As a result, the team managed not only to perform the operation successfully, but also to avoid massive blood loss, which is expected when removing a mass with such an active blood supply.

As a result of histologic studies, specialists finally established the diagnosis - angioid histiocytoma. This is a benign neoplasm, which is characterized by aggressive and rapid growth due to abundant blood supply to the involved vessels, and is not amenable to targeted drug therapy and other methods of treatment of vascular malformations.

RDKB specified that the postoperative period of the child was without complications, the girl's vision and mobility of the eye were fully preserved, exophthalmos - displacement of the eyeball forward - was reduced.

Earlier, on February 18, ophthalmologist, microsurgeon, laser surgeon "SM-Clinica", candidate of medical sciences Svetlana Mirgorodskaya told "Izvestia" that the feeling of "sand in the eyes" can be caused by inflammation or irritation of the mucous membrane of the eye - conjunctiva, as well as the cornea. The causes of this condition vary, but one of the most common is dry eye syndrome.