Recently the media has widely covered the birth of a six legged baby in Pakistan.This baby actually isn't six legged.As in many of my previous posts I have mentioned that twin Pregnancy or multiple pregnancy to be precise can cause a lot of complications and this is one such complication.
Here one twin is developing fine while the other most of the time doesn't have a head or heart but is attached to the body of the healthy twin and derives it's nutrition from it.That is the reason the baby without a head is called parasitic twin.
The 'healthy' twin has most of the time many associated congenital structural defects like cardiac anomalies which are most commonly the reason for non survival of the baby.The attachment between the two twins can be at times very minimal and the parasitic twin can be separated easily by surgery performed by a joint team of surgeons,orthopaedicians,plastic surgeons etc.At times the attachment is much more and there might be sharing of viscera like liver when the surgery is quite complex.
Most of them are epigastric parasitic twins but at times there might be two hips or two heads as well.
The optimal time for surgery is between 9 months to 12 months but if the baby is in cardiac failure it might need to be performed even before 6 months.The overall prognosis as said earlier depends on the associated anomaly in the Baby.It can be detected inside the uterus by Ultrasound Scans and in more detail by MRI.
The case is quite rare and the incidence is 1 in 2 million births but the cases might be under reported as well as parents in third world countries might hide such a child thinking it to be a' monster'.Usually such babies are delivered by Cesarean unless it is a very preterm delivery.
Here one twin is developing fine while the other most of the time doesn't have a head or heart but is attached to the body of the healthy twin and derives it's nutrition from it.That is the reason the baby without a head is called parasitic twin.
The 'healthy' twin has most of the time many associated congenital structural defects like cardiac anomalies which are most commonly the reason for non survival of the baby.The attachment between the two twins can be at times very minimal and the parasitic twin can be separated easily by surgery performed by a joint team of surgeons,orthopaedicians,plastic surgeons etc.At times the attachment is much more and there might be sharing of viscera like liver when the surgery is quite complex.
Most of them are epigastric parasitic twins but at times there might be two hips or two heads as well.
The optimal time for surgery is between 9 months to 12 months but if the baby is in cardiac failure it might need to be performed even before 6 months.The overall prognosis as said earlier depends on the associated anomaly in the Baby.It can be detected inside the uterus by Ultrasound Scans and in more detail by MRI.
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