A woman has given birth naturally to a baby girl with a massive growth on her neck.
The 25-year-old mum welcomed her baby girl at home, but the tot was taken to specialist doctors 45 days later following concerns about the growth.
The mass measured 15×20 cm in diameter and featured lobulations [a bumpy, lobed surface].
READ MORE: Footballer, 18, in critical condition after being stabbed by youths ‘over a look’
A soft tissue ultrasound revealed a cystic swelling that was not separable from the nearby thyroid gland.
Meanwhile a CT scan of the neck showed highly lobulated [bumpy] soft tissue.
Doctors decided to remove the mass, with a team working on the newborn, starting with a cervical collar incision.
The underlying fascia – a dense layer of connective tissue that lies beneath the skin – and the strap muscles were cut in order to see the tumour.
Luckily, doctors were able to remove both the growth and the thyroid gland.
The tumour was studied and a report showed that it was an immature teratoma grade 2.
These cervical teratomas are rare in neonatal cases and their location is said to be age-specific, as newborns and young children most often have growths that develop outside the usual testes or ovaries.
Instead, they’re usually found in the chest, abdomen, brain, or lower spine.
Intraoperative picture during the surgical resection of the cervical teratoma. (Picture: Jam Press)
Neonatal cervical teratomas are a very rare congenital type of teratoma that usually develops on the front and side of the neck.
They account for 3% of all childhood teratomas and occur in 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 40 000 live births.
The site of these tumours can pose tremendous difficulties during the prenatal and neonatal life.
The child, believed to be from South Darfur State in southwestern Sudan, was discharged from hospital and placed on thyroid replacement therapy after seven days.
READ MORE: Plane plunges into sea off packed beach, killing pilot
