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Craniopagus parasiticusCraniopagus parasiticus is a medical condition in which a parasitic twin head with an undeveloped (or underdeveloped) body is attached to the head of a developed twin. Additional recommended knowledgeThere have only been eight documented cases of this phenomenon, though to-date there have been at least eighty separate cases of this phenomenon written about in various records [1]. Only three ever have been documented by modern medicine to have survived birth.
PrognosisPrognosis for craniopagus parasiticus is generally poor. As of 2007, only three cases are known to have survived childbirth. Everard Home described the first and longest-lived of these, the "Two-Headed Boy of Bengal", who survived until bitten by a cobra in 1787, at the age of four.[1] More recent cases have attracted considerable media attention[2][3] as well as efforts to correct the condition through surgery. An infant girl in the Dominican Republic died in 2004 from complications in surgery.[4] Egyptian doctors, having studied evidence of that operation, successfully removed the parasitic twin from an infant, named Manar Maged, in 2005;[5] however, she succumbed to an infection the following year.[6] The twin removed in this case could smile, blink, cry, and tried to suckle [7] but never developed a body (except a small remnant), or lungs and heart, and instead was dependent on oxygen and nutrients provided by Manar. The case illustrates that there is a continuum from craniopagus parasiticus to the phenomenon of the conjoined twin. References
Categories: Congenital disorders | Rare diseases |
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Craniopagus_parasiticus". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia. |