Doctors in India have successfully removed a teenager's 16-kilogram “parasitic twin” following a complex surgical procedure.
Parasitic twins are an extremely rare medical phenomenon that occurs when one fetus stops developing while remaining attached and dependent on the other.
There are fewer than 50 similar cases reported in the medical literature, and the condition is thought to affect fewer than 1 in 100,000 people worldwide.
Before the surgery, the boy had two fully formed legs, buttocks and external genitalia that protruded from his abdomen and, according to doctors, could feel touch, pain and changes in temperature.
The boy, who hails from a remote village in Uttar Pradesh, said he had been socially marginalised due to his condition but had been given a “new world” after the surgery.
In an interview with Indian Express, he said: “I couldn’t travel anywhere or do any physical activity.”
“Now I hope to study and find a job. A new world has opened up to me.”
Due to a lack of medical knowledge and clinical examples on the topic, doctors said they had to rely on their “intuition, skill and experience” to successfully complete the surgery.
Scans were first carried out which revealed the parasitic twin was attached to the teenager's breastbone and was receiving blood from a vessel in his chest, but had no significant connection to other major organs such as the liver or kidneys.
The operation was then performed in two stages: in the first stage, the parasitic limbs were removed, and in the second, a large cyst was removed from the teenager’s abdominal cavity.
“One of the main concerns was the possible damage to the internal organs of the child host, which fortunately was avoided,” Dr Krishna, from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, told the BBC.
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Although the teenager's blood pressure dropped to dangerously low levels during the operation – 30-40% – doctors were prepared for this and were able to quickly stabilize his condition.
In a statement on social media after the surgery, Dr Krishna said: “Seventeen years of stigma and suffering ended in just two and a half hours.”
“Our team at AIIMS Delhi successfully removed a 16 kg parasitic twin from a little boy from Unnao, freeing him from this rare and complex disease.
He added: “Four days after the operation, he left the hospital ready to take his life back. That is the power of medical science and teamwork changing not just the body but the future.”
Sourse: metro.co.uk
