Infant’s extra legs surgically removed

DHNS

Bangalore, 09 July 2010: Eighteen-month-old baby, Vittal, born with four legs was on Thursday successfully operated and his extra limbs separated at a hospital here.

The baby was admitted to Narayana Hrudayalaya Multi-Speciality Hospital on June 30 with a rare condition called dipygus or pygomelia wherein accessory limbs develops in the gluteal (buttock region).

Hospital sources said it is considered to be a form of twinning and such similar abnormalities are occasionally noticed in fawns, dogs and cattle. A widely accepted theory was that it was result of adverse embryogenic influences, possibly terotogens.

The surgery of baby Vittal started around noon and it took almost six hours to complete. The surgery was over by 6 PM. The baby is doing fine. The baby has been shifted to the post operative ward. A team of 20 doctors were involved in the surgery.

The boy’s parents are from Pawaija from Mahaveerpura in Madhya Pradesh. The first reported case of dipygus documented was of an eight-year old Parisianboy in 1831, with an accessory pelvic bone in left buttock, connected to a single thigh and two calves. Each had separate feet.