Pawar undergoes surgery, said to be ‘doing well’

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar underwent a surgery for the removal of a benign growth in his mouth at south Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital at noon on Wednesday.

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar underwent a surgery for the removal of a benign growth in his mouth at south Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital at noon on Wednesday.

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“He is doing very well. The surgery went as expected,” said General Vijay Krishna, CEO of Breach Candy Hospital.
The surgery was completed within an hour. The Nationalist Congress Party chief has been kept under observation in the Intensive Care Unit of the private hospital.

“We will move him to a room on Thursday morning. He will be discharged either tomorrow or the day after that,” said onco-surgeon Dr Sultan Pradhan, who conducted the surgery.

Pawar had been diagnosed with an infective granuloma (an inflammatory growth due to an infection) in the oral cavity. The granuloma was removed under general anesthesia.

A biopsy conducted last week had showed that the growth was not cancerous.

“We tested the granuloma again after the surgery. The report confirmed that it was not cancer,” said Dr Pradhan, who is the director of Prince Aly Khan Hospital.

Dr Pradhan, who has been treating Pawar for several years, said the granuloma could have been caused by dental infection or because of previous surgery and radiation therapy. Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule and her husband, Sadanand, were by his side.

Until the biopsy was conducted, doctors had feared the growth could be a recurrence of oral cancer.

Pawar had undergone surgery at Breach Candy Hospital in 2004 to remove a tumour from his mouth.

He had swelling in his jaw before that surgery.