Newborn with twin foetuses in abdomen dies after surgery

Newborn with twin foetuses in abdomen dies after surgery

Sumati.Yengkhom@timesofindia.com 

TIMES OF INDIA  KOLKATA 201.10.2024

21.10.2024 

Kolkata : In a rare case, a three-day-old baby with foetuses of twins in its abdomen, died a day after undergoing a surgery to remove the foetuses at NRS Medical College & Hospital (NRSMCH) on Sunday. The condition called foetus-in-fetu (FIF) is extremely rare and only around 200 such cases have been reported around the globe, said doctors at NRS. It is a congenital disorder that makes a malformed foetus develop inside another during pregnancy. The foetuses inside the baby’s abdomen had formed partially. While in most cases only one foetus is found, in this case doctors found twin foetuses inside the newborn.

The baby was referred from a hospital in Malda with issues of the abdomen and breathing difficulty. After admission at the Kolkata hospital, doctors conducted extensive diagnosis that confirmed the presence of the twin foetuses inside the newborn's abdomen. “The twins were not fully formed and had developed only a few features like limbs and part of the skull in one. But each foetus had developed fingers and toes adding to the complexity of the surgical procedure,” said a doctor at the paediatric surgery department. Doctors said that in such a situation the only treatment was to surgically remove the malformed foetuses to save the newborn. Since the condition calls for an emergency surgery, the medical team decided to go ahead without delay to save the newborn. While the procedure was done on Saturday, the newborn died on Sunday. 

“During the surgery we removed both the foetuses successfully, but the newborn died a day later. While I have seen a few such cases, this is the first time we came across a twin foetus in the newborn. This made the procedure a lot more challenging,” said a doctor of the department. Doctors said that while FIF often remain asymptomatic during the pregnancy the disorder can be detected during antenatal USG. And if the detection is within 24 weeks of gestation the  pregnancy can be terminated. In this case the condition was detected only when brought to NRSMCH.