A rare case of parasitic twins (a form of conjoined twins) has been reported at the Perugopanapalli Primary Health Center in Mathur, Krishnagiri. The twins were transferred to the Krishnagiri Government Hospital, and from there to the Institute of Child Health (ICH) in Egmore, Chennai.
According to ICH director S. Sundari, one of the newborns has all the body parts, while the second is missing a head and thorax but has arms and legs and is able to pass urine and motion. “The parasitic twin is dependent on the normal twin for survival – deriving nutrients from the normal twin,” she said.
Four scans failed to detect the chromosomal anomaly of the foetus in his wife, claimed the 28-year-old father Muthusamy, as he awaits news from the doctors about his twin sons. “They took four scans on the 5th , 7th, 8th weeks and even 10 days before the delivery. Each time, they kept telling us that that the twins were perfectly normal,” he said.
The twins were born in a normal delivery for the mother Lakshmi (24) on November 26 at Perugopanapalli PHC. Selvi, paediatrician, Krishnagiri GH, said, “It would have been possible to detect a chromosomal anomaly in the 20th week of pregnancy if only they had visited the Krishnagiri GH.”
It was a consanguineous marriage for Munuswamy and Lakshmi. For her, this is the third pregnancy and she continues to be under care at the Krishnagiri GH. The couple has normal children in a five-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl.
The newborns have been accompanied by their aunt to Chennai. “At present, our surgeons are investigating the case. The babies are being tube fed while investigations are on, and we have to decide how to separate them and save the normal twin,” Dr. Sundari explained.
In a parasitic twin the tissues of a severely-defective twin are dependent on the system of the other.
