Bangladeshi physicians say that an operation to remove massive bark-like warts from the body of a young man with a rare skin disorder has been successful.
A nine-member panel of physicians took nearly three hours to remove the warts from the right-hand fingers of Abul Bajandar at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the largest state-run medical facility in Bangladesh, Dr Tanvir Ahmed said on Saturday.
Twenty-six year old Bajandar, known as "Tree Man", was admitted to the hospital in late January with the rare warts, which he began developing 10 years ago.
"We have successfully removed the warts from all the fingers on his right hand," Ahmed said, adding that the patient was happy with the operation.
Dr Samanta Lal Sen, head of the panel of the physicians, said Bajandar will stay under observation for three weeks before a second operation is carried out.
Asked whether the warts would reappear after the operations, Sen said he hopes they will not.
"But we will be sure about it only when we get reports on samples of blood, tissue and saliva that were sent for lab tests in the United States," he added.
Bajandar first noticed the strange growths when he was 16 years old and living as a rickshaw driver in the southern district of Khulna, 150 kilometres away from the capital Dhaka.
The condition worsened rapidly in the last four years, forcing him out of work.
The warts grew on his hands and legs by the dozens and were 5-8 centimetres in length, weighing about five kilograms in total.
The disease, the physicians say, is a very rare genetic skin disorder diagnosed as epidermodysplasia verruciformis. It is also called "tree-man" disease.
Bajandar is the first case of such a disorder in Bangladesh, Sen told local media, adding that he knew of about two other cases in the world.
Home Minister Mohammad Nasim earlier said that the government would bear the cost of Bajandar's treatment.
