An extremely rare case surprised doctors at Huashan Hospital, in China, and ended up in the pages of the American magazine Neurology. This is a patient of only 1 year old who had to undergo surgery to remove the fetus of her twin brother who was lodged inside her brain.
The anomaly is known in science as “fetus in the fetus” and has been recorded 200 times in history, only 18 of them in the skull region. This condition occurs when the embryo enters and develops in its sibling’s body, nourishing itself on its host’s blood.
The situation was discovered last year when the parents noticed that their daughter – who had already been diagnosed with hydrocephalus – was showing motor difficulties and an exacerbated growth on her head. As they took the girl to the hospital, CT scans revealed the rare condition.
As documented in the magazine, the fetus was 10 centimeters long, having developed some parts of the body, such as bones, nails and upper limbs.
– The fetus in the intracranial fetus arises from unseparated blastocysts. The joined parts develop in the forebrain of the host fetus and envelop the other embryo during the folding of the neural plate,” explained neurologist Zongze Li, according to information from the Daily Star newspaper.
The surgery in question was performed uneventfully, and the fetus was removed. However, it is still unknown whether the patient will develop any sequelae as a result of the condition.
