Doctors cure rare uterus disorder in 22-year-old girl

New Delhi: A team of doctors at a private hospital has conducted a successful laparoscopic surgery on a 22-year-old girl to treat an extremely rare uterine malformation that appears as a tiny uterus inside the main uterus.

The condition, cystic adenomyoma, also known as accessory cavitated uterine mass (ACUM), is a rare and highly under diagnosed condition with only 75 reported cases so far.

According to doctors, the 22-year old patient, a medical student, was experiencing severe dysmenorrhoea or painful periods since the past three years with the condition progressively worsening. Despite seeking multiple opinions and treatments from a series of doctors — from gynaecologists to psychologists — her condition remained undiagnosed.

Her rare condition was finally diagnosed at Paras Hospitals by doctors who used extensive imaging tests to identify the malformation in her uterus.

She developed dysmenorrhoea five years after attaining menarche (occurrence of the first menstruation) due to gradual collection of blood in the accessory uterus, which became swollen and caused pain. She sought consultations of gynaecologists and received treatment for polycystic ovarian disease (PCOD) and fibroids.

“However, despite normal blood parameters, her pain did not subside. So, ultrasound and MRI were done. Reports were reviewed by the experts where doubt of ACUM was raised — it is a rare disease with only 75 reported cases so far and a handful of them have been treated laparoscopically,” said Dr Alka Kriplani, the former faculty of AIIMS and head of minimally invasive gynaecology at Paras Hospitals.