Slow Growing

Side view: nose and mouth to the lower front left

 

This is a brain tumor. And if it is in your head this is big trouble. It is benign and grew slowly. The only noticeable symptom was that the patient lost his sense of smell. It did not act like a stroke so the symptom was ignored until now. And there is swelling around this tumor so it is actively growing. Now it can no longer be ignored. Surgeons like fisherman like to exaggerate about size so here are the images and you can make your own guess. This one Is on the extra large side of the equation. It is not the largest tumor I have removed. My assistant shook his head in amazement because it was the largest he has seen me remove while he worked with me. But hey! I’m older. The task at hand is to get this tumor out without causing any disturbance to the surrounding brain.

Face on view: the back of the eye nerves are the dots – nose in the middle

 

Oh? Yes it is benign. And the sense of smell is gone because the tumor origin is right from that area. There are a lot of serious neurological structures to worry about like the nerves for vision and major arteries into the brain. Of course it requires a complex approach to just expose the mass. As large as the tumor grew, it is still a matter of millimeters between trouble and success. We spent some hours taking this out. In fact it was close to six. And… the end result was that the patient was fine! That is the only thing that matters in the end. I just wish I had met this tumor when it was a lot smaller. But since I’ve been here there are lots of people who have refused surgery in favor of just waiting. Gee!

Top down view: things are turned around left and right. Lots of swelling around the tumor

 

And the patient – he will make a good recovery except for the sense of smell which was taken by the tumor growing.