Giant Uterine Fibroid in a Low Resources Setting: A Case Report

Abstract

Background: Uterine leiomyomas represent the most common benign tumors of the female reproductive tract. Giant uterine leiomyomas are exceedingly rare neoplasm and represents a great diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. The aim of this publication is that though the present era is of advanced technology and minimally invasive surgery but this may not be available everywhere and feasible in every case. Diagnosis and management of giant uterine myoma should permit greater management flexibility with safe options, which must be tailored to the individual clinical situation.
Case presentation: A 45-year old woman presented with a 12-month history of progressive increasing abdominal size, prolonged menstrual bleeding, menorrhagia, gradual weight gain, vague abdominal pressure sensations, dysmenorrhea, abdominal and pelvic pain, frequent urination, relative constipation and symptom of anemia but not in failure. Physical examination, laboratory evaluation and a trans-abdominal ultrasound were done and findings suggested a giant abdominal-pelvic mass. Abdominal supracervical hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed. Histologically, the specimen was 16.2 Kg uterine leiomyoma measuring 30/24/20 cm, intramural and subserosal myomatous, cellular leiomyoma that occurred without secondary changes, necrosis, cellular atypia, or mitosis.
The patient’s postoperative progress was uneventful and she was discharged from the hospital on the seventh postoperative day.
Conclusion: In uterine leiomyomas patient, the preferred imaging modality for initial evaluation is ultrasonography because it is the least invasive and most cost effective investigation especially in low resource settings where magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) Scan are usually not available and majority of the patients cannot afford its cost. The chosen treatment should be individualized, both severity of symptoms and patients desire to preserve fertility are very important. There is no single best approach to uterine fibroid treatment. However, women with giant uterine fibroids are best treated surgically and require adequate pre-operative preparations and an experienced skillful surgeon.

Keywords: Giant uterine leiomyoma, diagnosis, supracervical hysterectomy.