Image credit: www.china.org.cn
You may have heard of older women and even teenage girls getting pregnant and delivering a healthy baby. Have you heard of a baby carrying a fetus at birth? Sounds unreal, but it isn’t!
Recently, a premature twin boy born in the Shaanxi province of China was found to have a fetus inside him, owing to a condition called fetus in fetu. The occurrence, although rare, is not the first of its kind. In 2015, a baby girl in Hong Kong was born with a set of twin fetuses in her womb. There have been several recorded instances in the past as well.
Doctors treating the 15-day old twin boy have not been able to pinpoint the actual cause of his condition. However, they have been successful in taking the fetus out through surgery. The boy weighed around 2kg after birth and was found to have a mass of tissue in his abdominal region. The fetus had nail and hair growth, much to the surprise of his parents as well as the doctors.
What Causes Foetus In Foetu?
One of the many mysteries baffling the medical fraternity, the fetus in fetu is a condition with earliest records dating back to 1808. It is a rare birth defect in which a twin carries the fetus of the other, usually in his or her abdominal area. Two theories are used to explain this phenomenon.
The Parasitic Twin
Like conjoined twins, parasitic twins are formed when the twin embryos in the uterus fail to separate completely. The dominant embryo continues to develop fully while being enveloped by the other. The fully developed fetus becomes the host twin or autosite for the parasitic twin, which fully depends on the former to survive.
The Teratoma Theory
The Teratoma theory is based on the idea that the under-developed fetus inside the fully developed embryo is a teratoma, which is a tumor with tissue or organ growth on it. Fetus in fetu is considered to be a benign condition, but the removal of the tumor, along with its capsule, is often recommended to prevent any malignant recurrences. Some experts believe that the fetus is a form of mature teratoma that contains bone, hair, and sometimes organs like eyes, hands and feet. Others believe it to be a highly altered form of a dermoid cyst.
