Unborn twin found in 1-year-old girl’s brain

Chinese doctors took an x-ray of the skull of a one-year-old girl who was developmentally delayed and her head was too big. They found an underdeveloped fetus inside her brain.

They decided it was her unborn twin. This phenomenon, a fetus in a fetus, is also called a parasitic twin. The embryos are connected in utero, but only one of them continues to develop. However, an undeveloped twin is extremely rarely found in the brain.

Doctors decided that for the sake of the health of a one-year-old child, the parasitic twin must be removed. They cut out a fetus about 10 centimeters long with the initial formation of arms and hands, as well as the rudiments of the spine.

It is likely that the fetus entered the sister’s brain during the formation of the neural plate (the rudiment of the central nervous system – ed.). This explains how the fetus could have ended up inside the girl’s skull.

The previous similar case was described in 1982, when a 14-centimeter fetus was found in the head of a six-week-old baby. After the operation, the child survived.

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