BHUBANESWAR: Neurosurgeons at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar, have come across a baby with a rare human tail formed in the upper back region of the body. Claimed to be the first such phenomenon to be reported in the world, the surgeons have successfully operated on the infant and removed the abnormal growth.
The baby boy was born to a couple from Kakatpur in Puri district in November last year. Suspecting it to be a rare disease, panicked parents had brought him to SUM hospital for treatment. During the investigation, the doctors found the tail-like growth on the spinal cord.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Rama Chandra Deo said the baby had a spinal cord anomaly with a tail at the upper back and a dermal sinus pit in the coccygeal area. “Although 26 cases of bony tail have been reported in the world so far, this is the only known case of a bony human tail in the thoracic region. In earlier cases, the tails have been spotted at the lower end of the spine in the coccygeal region,” he said.
Most people are not born with a tail because the structure disappears or absorbs into the body during foetal development and forms the vestigial tailbone or coccyx. The human tail is a rare congenital condition. As per the existing medical literature, the presence of bony tails in humans has been reported since 1880. A total 195 cases have been documented so far and 26 among them were people with actual bony tails.
“True bony human tail is exceedingly rare. In the initial days, certain cases with the growth of hair, skin or flesh have been cited as bony tails. But now a bony tail is considered to be documented only if it has a bony core with muscular attachment and skin cover,” Dr. Deo said.
After the baby was detected with rare growth, a team of neurosurgeons led by Vice-Chancellor of SOA University Prof Ashok Kumar Mahapatra conducted surgery and removed the tail. The baby was 14-day-old when the surgery was conducted.