Guyana: Surgeons remove 'human tail' from 10-day-old boy
Surgeons at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) got to put their medical training to the test recently when they performed a rare surgery on a child born with what they called a “human tail”.
The team, led by Chief Neurosurgeon Dr Amarnauth Dukhi, successfully removed the tail and reconstructed the 10-day-old boy’s spinal canal during their surgery on June 18.
According to the GPHC, this procedure will allow the child to develop normally.
GPHC noted the human tail is usually considered a marker of the time underlying pathology of peculiar spinal dysraphism. The reported presentations of spinal dysraphism include spina bifida occulta, meningocele, and spinal lipoma or tethered spinal cord.
“Due to its infrequent presentation, the occurrence of the human tail is a phenomenon of great interest to both the lay and medical community. As a tertiary medical institution committed to medical education and research, Neurosurgery, GPHC will present this case to the global medical community for documentation and review,” GPHC said in a statement.
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