NIMS surgeons remove tumour behind woman’s cheekbone

In a breakthrough medical procedure, neurosurgeons at NIMS have removed a deeply lodged benign tumour behind the cheekbone from a 29-year-old woman without leaving a single facial scar.

The woman had suffered from persistent frontal headaches for three months, and images revealed a 3 cm schwannoma, a non-cancerous nerve sheath tumour, behind her cheekbone, neurosurgeon Dr Y Thirumal Yerragunta



said.

Conventionally, removing tumours from this complex region requires invasive open surgery with facial incisions and bone-cutting, or endoscopic nasal surgery.

Instead, the NIMS team utilised an innovative transconjunctival approach through the lower eyelid. Guided by real-time neuronavigation, surgeons created a small corridor along the eye socket floor to access and completely remove the mass in a six-hour operation.