Delhi AIIMS Doctors Perform Rare Surgery To Separate 'Parasitic Twin' From 17-Year-Old

Doctors at Delhi AIIMS have successfully removed two 'parasitic legs' from a 17-year-old boy's abdomen, giving him a new lease of life.

Delhi AIIMS Surgery: Doctors at Delhi AIIMS have successfully removed two 'extra' legs hanging out from the belly of a 17-year-old boy in a critical surgery. This is reportedly the first such surgery performed at the hospital.

Doctors said that this condition is known as an 'incomplete parasitic twin'. An incomplete parasitic twin, also known as a vestigial twin, is a rare type of conjoined twin where one twin is partially formed and dependent on the other. The incomplete twin is non-functional and dies in the womb. Only 40 such cases have been reported globally so far, that too at a young age.

Dr Asuri Krishna, additional professor in the surgery department, said that the patient from Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, arrived at the hospital in the last week of January with two extra legs hanging out of his stomach. We had heard about twin pregnancy. Sometimes twin embryos do not separate from each other in the womb and later are born as conjoined twins. 

Asuri Krishna said that the condition was very rare. Krishna said that most such cases are brought in at a young age, but this patient came at the age of 17 because he did not get proper treatment anywhere before. This was a difficult case, so experts from several departments had to be involved.

Krishna further said the patient was operated upon for two hours on February 8 and kept in the ICU for 24 hours for monitoring. He was discharged on the fourth day of surgery. The doctor said: "We were successful in separating the parasitic twin as well as two large cysts present inside the boy's stomach, which we believe is the incomplete body of the other twin. This was the first time such a procedure was done at AIIMS Delhi."

(With inputs from PTI.)