Onfalopagus parasitic fusioned twin: A case report

The parasitic fetus is a kind of siamese twin, in which one of the twins is reabsorbed and some parts of the body can remain attached to the other twin. It is a very rare event, with a birth incidence that varies from 0.05 to 1.47 cases per 100,000.

This paper reports the case of a parasitic twin diagnosed at 34 weeks of gestational age. Preoperative ultrasonography was performed and the absence of communication between vital organs and the parasite was observed, and surgery was scheduled at 10 days of life. A multidisciplinary team performed the surgical procedure and the child was discharged from the intensive care unit after 3 months.

After diagnosis and birth, it is essential to investigate the anomalies found for future surgical programming, and cases of twins who do not share vital organs, for example, heart or brain, have higher survival rates. The treatment is surgical and the objective of the surgery must be resection of the parasite.

The diagnosis still in the gestational period is essential to plan the best mode of delivery and neonatal care, as well as define the surgical schedule. The hospital must be tertiary and the presence of a multidisciplinary team is necessary to perform the surgery in order to present the highest success rates.