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In a ground-breaking medical achievement, doctors at AIIMS Delhi successfully performed a rare surgery on a 17-year-old boy to remove two extra lower limbs hanging from his abdomen.
The condition, known as an incomplete parasitic twin, is a rare phenomenon where an underdeveloped twin, which has not fully formed, attaches to the host twin and survives by feeding off the host's body. Dr Asuri Krishna, the Chief Surgeon at AIIMS Delhi, explained, "This condition is what we call an incomplete parasitic twin. It's a twin that has not formed completely but it is feeding on the host. This surgery is challenging because it is feeding on the host. It derives a lot of his blood supply, nerve supply, and everything from the host. The challenge is to identify those, and to ligate them and to cut them. We also have to see what attachments it has with the abdominal viscera, whether it's attached to the liver, intestine, or the colon. Fortunately, in this patient, there was no major attachment." The surgery was particularly complicated due to the blood supply and nerve connections between the parasitic limbs and the host's body. Dr Maneesh Singhal, from Burn & Plastic Surgery at AIIMS Delhi, highlighted the complexity, "The biggest challenge was that number one, it was quite big. Number two, internally, it was spread on a CT scan and ultrasound. There was a lot of blood; more than 1.5 litres of blood was there in the twin, so there was a sudden loss of blood. To our good luck, we did not find any complications, and the surgery went well." Dr VK Bansal, Professor in the Surgery Department, AIIMS Delhi, noted the initial concerns upon examining the patient, "When we saw the patient for the first time, the first thing that came to our mind was whether the parasitic limb had any connection with the heart, liver, intestine, or other organs of the body because then surgery would have become more risky and complicated." Despite the challenges, the surgery was a success, and the patient is now recovering well. Dr. Krishna said, "The patient was 16-17 years old, and presently, he is doing very well. He was very happy after the surgery." The medical team also noted the emotional impact of the situation, with Dr Bansal expressing sympathy for the child's years of suffering with the extra limbs. He added, "It is very sad that the child had to survive for so many years with this limb...Our society cannot take care of these things for the parents." (ANI)
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