Black tumor removed from the brain of 72-year-old woman

A team of doctors have removed a rare and complex black brain tumor from the brain of a 72-year-old woman at a hospital. In October last year, the patient suffered loss of consciousness with right sided weakness, for which a CT scan was done where she was diagnosed with brain hemorrhage. 

Earlier this year, the patient suffered right-sided paralysis with difficulty in speaking, leaving her bed-ridden. A repeat CT scan and MRI revealed a recurrence of brain hemorrhage at the same site and a much larger clot than last time.

At surgery, the tumor was identified as a rare black tumor (melanoma), which is known to cause bleeding. The team of doctors at Fortis Hospital Shalimar Bagh treated the patient via a complex dual brain surgery and excised without causing any damage to surrounding brain tissues.

Explaining the rarity of the case, Dr Sonal Gupta, Director & HOD Neurosurgery,  said, it was a very rare case of black brain tumour with only 0.5 per 10 million cases reported per year. Furthermore, two brain surgeries in same admission, long hours of surgery with heavy bleeding, that too at the age of 72, posed huge challenges at various stages of the treatment. In fact, the woman had a pre-existing issue of spontaneous layer formation in the breathing pipe. So, she had to undergo bronchoscopic treatment after the surgery as such patients are put on ventilator during anesthesia, taking them off the ventilator becomes very difficult. She would have succumbed to the tumour within months, if not treated on time. Now with complete therapy, chances of survival for the next 5 years is 70-80% and she is independent with no paralysis or disabling deficit”.