A one-year-old baby underwent surgery to remove her twin’s fetus from her brain in China.
This condition is rare – it happens in one case in every 500,000 births and around 200 occurrences are documented. It’s a case of fetus in fetu (or “parasitic twin”), which happens when a non-viable or malformed fetus is absorbed by the twin, which ends up developing normally.
The anomaly was documented by a team of scientists from Fudan University in Shanghai, and the study was published in the journal Neurology.
The girl was being followed by doctors because of her increased head circumference, hydrocephalus and motor delay, which led to the discovery of the “parasitic twin”.
DNA tests confirmed that the mass found in the baby’s brain was, in fact, her twin brother, who managed to grow by feeding on her blood.
The fetus developed upper limbs, with finger tips, and it was possible to observe the spine, femur and tibia.
According to The worldboth fetuses shared the same placenta, but each was in its own amniotic sac.
This was surgically removed from the brain of a one year old. Source:@GreenJournal🧵 pic.twitter.com/LEYzeoaWsg
— Oren Gottfried, MD (@OGdukeneurosurg)
March 6, 2023
