In a rare surgery, a seven kg tumour has been removed by a team of doctors from the abdomen of a 45-year-old woman in Thiruvananthapuram.

The huge tumour, 'Retroperitoneal Lymphangioma', was removed after a four-hour surgery by a team of 14 doctors led by Dr G Unnikrishnan, Assistant Professor of the General Surgery Department and Additional Professor Dr P K Thomas of the Medical College hospital on June 11.

Dr Unnikrishnan told PTI that when the patient was brought to the hospital, she was finding it difficult to bend down, breathe, and move around.

The tumour had pushed her left kidney to the right, stomach and pancreas were pushed up to the anterior abdominal wall and the left descending colon was pushed to the right side, he said.

The woman was admitted to the hospital on June 2 with acute stomach pain. Though she had visited various private hospitals, there was no relief.

The patient was responding to treatment and recovering, he said, adding, only 186 such tumours have been reported so far the world over.