It is a very rare case the one faced by the doctors of Fudan University in Shanghai. And fetus The unborn baby was removed from the brain of her one-year-old twin. The girl had an enlarged head and motor problems: after a CT (computed tomography) the doctors – with the case study which was then reported in the scientific journal Neurology – noticed that the brain of the baby was compressed due to the presence of a malformed fetus from a diamniotic monochorionic pregnancy (when each twin has its own amniotic sac, but both share the same placenta) in a sac of fluid between the cerebral ventricles.
Surgical removal of the fetus
Doctors had to surgically remove a “intraventricular fetus-in-fetus”, that is, a fetus that has developed inside the skull of the twin. Over the months she had even developed mini upper limbs and finger-like projections, albeit decidedly underdeveloped. It occurs when the group of dividing cells formed from the fertilized egg fails to separate properly. At that point it is possible for one of the first embryos to remain enveloped by the other. There it fails to develop but remains “alive” thanks to the blood that comes from the twin. The conjoined parts of the twins develop in the forebrain of the host fetus and wrap around the other embryo during neural plate folding.
What is the fetus-in-fetu
The “parasitic” fetus, also called “Fetus in fetu” (fetus in the fetus), is an embryonic anomaly that is triggered during a twin pregnancy, in which one of the twins develops in the body of the other. Although alive, since it is made up of vital cells, the malformed fetus cannot in any case survive outside the host twin, which supplies blood and nutrients: in fact, it has neither brain nor heart, despite having a sketchy organization of the other organs.
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The cases of fetus in the fetus are very rare, about one case every 500,000 births according to experts. In most cases, the unborn fetus is found inside the body of the living baby, but it is very rare to find its presence in the brain of the twin.