The main building of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bibinagar of Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district.
| Photo Credit: File photo
Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bibinagar have successfully removed a 15-centimetre ‘human tail’ from a three-month-old boy hailing from Hyderabad. “Human tails are very rare, with approximately 40 cases reported worldwide in medical literature,” stated Dr. Shasanka Shekhar Panda, Head of the Paediatric Surgery department at the hospital.
Often, what appears to be a true tail is actually a pseudo tail, which is typically a symptom of an irregular coccyx (base of spinal column) or spina bifida (condition when spine and spinal cord don’t form properly)l. “In this case, the tail was attached to the infant’s spinal cord,” Dr. Panda explained.
The patient was brought to the hospital in January and admitted for five days during which the surgery was performed. After six months of regular follow-up, there have been no complications. “The surgery to remove the tail took about three hours, during which we meticulously dissected the tail. The post-operative recovery has been uneventful, and the patient has no neurological deficit,” Dr. Panda confirmed.
