Styrian woman well

Sensational operation: pregnant woman’s spleen cyst removed

Selman Uranüs with his team during the operation(Bild: Uranüs)

When it comes to the spleen, the people of Graz are at the top of the list - and Prof. Selman Uranüs is known far beyond Austria's borders as the spleen expert par excellence. Now, for the first time, he has succeeded in performing an operation that is highly regarded in specialist circles: the removal of a giant cyst from the spleen of a pregnant woman!

When it comes to the spleen, "this important organ is often given far too little importance," says the highly specialized Graz expert Prof. Selman Uranüs. This means that it is often completely removed in the event of problems such as cysts, changes or tumors. Uranüs: "Because even in specialist circles, the prevailing opinion is that you can live well without it. You really can, but this organ with a high blood supply is so important that, in case of doubt, you should definitely operate to preserve the spleen." The spleen is an important blood purifier, "in one hour, all of our blood passes through this important organ twice, which filters out all foreign substances such as germs before they become diseases". 

Professor Selman Uranüs visits the "Steirerkrone" editorial team(Bild: Christa Blümel)

In his impressive surgical career, the doctor himself has already successfully performed 180 such operations, with patients coming to him from Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Turkey. But this is the first time - and according to him, there is no other surgeon in the world who has done it - that he has managed to perform a widely acclaimed procedure: removing a giant cyst from the spleen of a pregnant woman! Uranüs: "The woman became pregnant immediately after she was suddenly diagnosed with a cyst. At 13.5 centimetres, it was twice the size of the organ itself." This also posed a huge risk: "If it burst because the unborn child was growing and the uterus was pressing on it, this could have led to internal bleeding. And therefore a life-threatening situation for mother and child." There was only a minimal time window for the procedure, namely shortly after the first three months; this is when the embryo's organs are formed, which Uranüs did not want to influence with anesthesia. And after that, the uterus would grow too quickly.

The white spot on the right shows the huge cyst on the X-ray image(Bild: Uranüs)

The operation, which lasted three hours, was now successful. And the cyst, which contained more than a liter of blood and fluid, was removed! Uranüs: "Mom and baby are fine, I'm very happy, everything went well."

 The top surgeon now has an appeal, even to his colleagues: "That more attention is paid to the spleen."