By Allah’s Grace, a medical team of at the Eye Health Center of King Abdullah Medical City-Makkah has successfully conducted a sophisticated surgery to resect a swollen eye tumor for the left eye of a patient aged 107 years. The patient was referred to the medical city after suffering for three months without any positive response to treatment. During that period, his eye tumor developed from a lentil-sized tumor on the left side of his eye into a swollen one covering both upper and lower eyelids of his left eye; thus, damaging the patient’s eye, its ocular muscle, lacrimal gland and left orbit, as well as total loss of his left eyesight. The bigger the tumor grew, the more the patient and his family suffered. The tumor surface blistered, constantly bled and produced obnoxious odor; hence, hurting the patient and his family. The patient was examined by the Plastic Eye Surgery Clinic at the City’s Eye Health Center after he was referred as an acute case of lymphoma in the left orbit for radiotherapy. After due checkups and radiology, he was diagnosed with an anterior left eye swollen tumor (5cmx4cmx3cm), which hindered effective diagnosis of his eye. Then a biopsy was taken for lab test, followed by full angiography of the patient’s systems to ensure non-proliferation of the disease. The test results confirmed the tumor as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of poorly differentiated type, one of the worst skin cancers which spreads fast and destroys cells and organs. The patient’s systems were confirmed healthy. Very quickly, the team decided to resect the tumor before affecting other parts of the patient’s body, taking into account his age, the tumor size and state of the patient’s mind as he was suffering from Alzheimer’s for a year; thus, posing a challenge before all concerned medical teams to handle his case directly and communicate with him. Accordingly, an emergency surgery was decided to remove the eye orbit with all of its contents, including the left eye, eye lids, ocular muscle, lacrimal gland and ocular nerve under general anesthesia.
Thank Allah the surgery has been successful without any complications. Finally, the patient was put under observation for three days in the ICU, then moved to the inpatient ward after his condition improved. He was also monitored for another week, as his vital signs improved. Then has was discharged from the Medical City. After that, he was followed up for three days by the outpatient clinics. Both his mental and physical health improved. He was also confirmed to be fully free from any tumor traces, or any sources of other tumor types. Thank Allah he is now in good health.