A baby girl in Brazil has left doctors stunned after she was born with a tail. Surgeons removed the newborn’s 6cm-long appendage, which was covered in skin and protruded from her back.
Pictures of the remarkable case were published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports. The unidentified girl was born with spina bifida, a birth defect that occurs when a baby’s spinal cord doesn’t develop properly.
The infant’s condition caused a gap to form in her spine. Medical experts believed the abnormality was likely the cause of the tail. Fortunately, the child has been discharged from the hospital after surgeons were successful in closing up the hole without a hitch and removing the appendage.
Doctors from Grendaac, a children’s hospital in Sao Paulo, said the tail was generated from the lumbosacral region, the area that connects the spine to the pelvis.
Medics diagnosed the appendage as a “human pseudo-tail”, a growth that resembles a tail but is caused by spine problems or tumours. The deformity is different to the tail, which contains muscle, blood vessels and nerves but no bones.