An unusual case of epigastric heteropagus: Parasite with a rudimentary heart

Bizarre Presentation of Epigastric Heteropagus: Report of a Case

“…We found only one other case report of a parasite with a lung and rudimentary heart. 17 In our patient, one lower limb and the pelvic bone of the parasite were fused with the respective structure in the autosite.…”

“…Epigastric heteropagus refers to conjoined twins, in which the parasite is attached to the epigastrium of the autosite. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] After incomplete cleavage of the embryo, ischemic changes of varying degree occur and the remaining parasite usually has a rudimentary upper part of the body. Some reports describe a parasite connected at the chest wall as a result of a giant omphalocele, but they were still usually classified as epigastric heteropagus.…”

“…To our knowledge, only 27 cases have been reported in the English literature. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] In some cases, the parasite was attached to the chest wall of the autosite, but these cases were still categorized as epigastric heteropagus. 2,7,12,13 In epigastric heteropagus, the parasite usually has a rudimentary upper part of the body, a pelvic bone, visceral organs such as a bladder, kidney, genitourinary organs, gastrointestinal tract, and lower limbs, but the pattern of abnormalities differs from that in caudal duplication (dipygus).…”

Unusual case of epigastric heteropagus twinning

“…In epigastric heteropagus twins, the junction is above the umbilicus. Such cases are extremely rare, and there are few reports of this in the literature [2].…”

“…It is believed that heteropagus twins result from atrophic ischemia of monozygotic conjoined twins at an early gestational age [2,3]. Nonetheless, there is one report of dizygotic twins [4].…”