Baby boy has 15cm tail removed in rare surgery at Indian hospital

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Doctors in India have successfully performed a rare human tail removal surgery on a three-month-old infant from the southern state of Telangana.

The surgery, performed in January and reviewed by doctors at AIIMS Bibinagar hospital earlier this week, involved removing a 15cm tail from the baby’s lumbosacral (lower back) region.

“Human tails are very rare, with approximately 40 cases reported worldwide in medical literature,” Dr Shasanka Shekhar Panda, head of paediatric surgery at the hospital, was quoted as saying byThe Hindu.

Since there is a risk of the tail damaging the spinal cord, affecting mobility as well as urine and bowel functions, it is recommended that surgery be performed early on.

“After removing it we reconstructed the child’s spinal canal. There was Spina Bifida connected with the spinal cord which was dissected meticulously with repair of Dura,” Dr Panda said, referring to a condition in which a baby’s spine and spinal cord are not properly developed in the womb.

“The postoperative recovery was uneventful. The patient is having no neurological deficit and good wound cosmesis at six months post-surgery follow-up. So the operation was considered a success and the details of the rare surgery were announced.”

This is not the first tail surgery in the country.

In 2022, neurosurgeons in the eastern Odisha state operated on the bony tail of a two-month old infant.

“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,” Dr Rama Chandra Deo told The New Indian Express at the time.

Most people are not born with a tail because the structure disappears or absorbs into the body during foetal development.

Brazil reported a similar case in 2023 of doctors surgically removing a 6cm long tail. The appendage was covered in skin and protruded from the infant’s back, the Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports said.