Surgeons at Al-Ahli Hospital in Doha, Qatar, performed a rare surgery to remove a spine tumor from a 10-year-old girl, according to a Nov. 19 report from Doha News.
The tumor was discovered after the patient suffered two months of upper back pain that worsened with time, the report said. Her ability to go to school, sleep and breathe were affected. Her second thoracic vertebral body was also collapsed due to the tumor, causing compression on her spine.
The surgery was ordered after a thoracic spine MRI was done, the report said.
"The main challenge in this case was how to safely get access to this tumour," Dr. El Fatih Bashir Elmalik, a consulting neurosurgeon at the hospital, told Doha News. "That was because of the anatomical location of this part of the spine directly behind the major blood vessels and the heart. Accordingly, the surgical procedure was planned carefully using the CT scan and MRI."