A 1-year-old girl underwent surgery to extract the fetus from her twin brother, an anomaly known as fetus in fetu (fetus in fetus) or “parasitic twin,” as reported by Fundan University in Shanghai, China.
“Identified a fetus-in-fetu intraventricular malformation, a malformed monochorionic diamniotic twin, in a 1-year-old girl with motor delay and enlarged head circumference,” he points out. the report.
Occurs in 1 in 500,000 births
The phenomenon occurs in approximately 1 in 500,000 births. Usually, the malformed fetus appears in the abdomen. However, in this case it appeared in the minor’s head.
When they were fetuses, both had shared the same placenta, although separated by amniotic sacs. Everything seems to indicate that one of them blended in during pregnancy. It then lodged in the girl’s brain during the development process, called black plate folding.
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
The discovery came after the 1-year-old girl showed signs of retarded development of her motor skills, enlarged skull circumference and fluid accumulation in the brain.
Brain scans revealed that the fetus in the 1-year-old girl’s head had a backbone and two leg bones. In addition, she had spina bifida, a condition where part of the spinal cord is exposed. When she was finally extracted, it was determined that she had upper extremity and finger buds.
