Ludhiana hospital conducts successful surgery on 1-year-old with third leg

A city hospital in Ludhiana conducted a successful corrective surgery of a 1-year-old boy of Haibowal who had a third leg. Dr Baldeep Singh of the private hospital, said that the patient was brought to the paediatric Out Patient Department (OPD) of a Ludhiana-based NGO.

He had a birth defect where an additional rudimentary leg was arising from the back in addition to the two normal legs and the third leg was neurologically intact although the power in that leg was reduced.

“This ‘Tripod Deformity’ is seemingly due to a parasite Siamese twin, the body of which degenerated leaving the leg behind in the other twin, which fused with the back of the baby. The patient had undergone an MRI scan which showed the presence of Femur tibia fibula and the knee joint in the additional leg,” said the paediatrician.

He added that after reaching this diagnosis, a decision was made by the expert team of doctors at the hospital to remove this leg.

The hospital authorities said that the surgery lasted for 6 hours in which the rudimentary leg was detached from the nervous plexus, amputated and then the skin defect was closed.

Dr. RK Kaushal, Head of the Department (HOD), Neurosurgery at the Hospital said, “There was a spinal cord connection of the third leg with an associated meningomyelocele. The MMC was repaired and the nerve connections to the accessory leg were detached carefully sparing the nerve Fibers of the normal lower extremities. The patient is currently in the paediatric Intensive Care Unit and is recovering as per expectations. This was one of the rarest and most challenging cases I have seen in my career.”