Hyderabad, March 24: Not infrequently does one hear stories of irate patients and harried staff in government hospitals.
But this is a tale that has brought smiles all round — to agricultural labourers P Narasimhulu and his wife, Lakshmi, whose toddler, Siva Raj (1 1/2 years), got a fresh lease of life, and the doctors at Niloufer Hospital who successfully performed a rare surgery to free the boy from the parasitic twin attached to his abdomen.
It was a first for the hospital, and the details of the operation, which was done in January, were made public at a press conference here today.
The infant, from Ibrahimbad village in Narsapur mandal, Medak district, had had an abdominal swelling since birth. On examination, the swelling proved to be a rudimentary head with hair and a rudimentary mouth. A subsequent CT scan and ultrasound revealed a case of teratoma involving a parasitic twin.
Professor of Paediatric Surgery, Dr K Ramesh Reddy, who headed the team of surgeons, told mediapersons that parasitic twinning is believed to be related to the process that results in conjoined twins. Parasitic twins are, therefore, also often referred to as asymmetrical conjoined twins or unequal conjoined twins.
“The operation took three hours.
The parasitic twin was separated from the liver of the normal baby and we removed the rudimentary mouth, skull, liver, mouth and hair successfully,’’ he added.
The surgery was conducted by a team comprising Drs K Ramesh Reddy, S Srinivas, Shiva Kumar, Sarveswar Reddy, Hari Prasad and Narasimha Rao.
Ramesh Reddy said parasitic twinning happens when two separate embryos or foetuses are formed in the uterus but one of the twins stops developing during gestation and results in a vestigial counterpart to a healthy, and otherwise often fully-formed individual twin. The parasitic twin is dependent on the body functions of the host twin, known as the autosite.
“Only one or two such cases occur in a million live births. If not treated, the parasite grows in size and causes pressure on the organs of its twin. In the instant case, the infant is doing well after surgery and will lead a normal life,’’ he said.
Dr Ramesh Reddy said Niloufer had done free of cost the prestigious operation which at a corporate hospital would have cost anywhere between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh at least.
Said the boy’s parents: “We came to Niloufer Hospital a few months ago.
The doctors took various samples for tests and performed the surgery in January. It has been nothing short or a rebirth for our son.’’ The first parasitic twin case reported in the country was from Bihar — a two-year-old girl, Lakshmi Tatma, with one head but two pairs of arms and legs, and the first surgery involving parasitic twins was done at Bangalore’s Sparsh Hospital in 2007.
–Agencies