A year-and-a-half-old toddler arrived at an Egyptian liver institute suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding, leading doctors who performed an endoscopy to discover a rare fetal formation inside her stomach in a case known medically as fetus in fetu
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What appeared initially as routine diagnostic evaluations for acute bleeding quickly shifted into a complex surgical intervention when internal imaging revealed a malformed mass resting inside the child's stomach.
Physicians initiated standard diagnostic protocols to locate the origin of the hemorrhage. According to the institute's medical team, an exploratory endoscopy served as the critical turning point in the evaluation, exposing an unusual mass nestled inside the gastric cavity.
Subsequent evaluations confirmed that the anomaly contained disorganized embryonic tissue featuring visible limb structures, such as a foot and digits. The condition matches a rare congenital anomaly in which one twin is enveloped within the body of the other during early embryonic development. Medical literature estimates this phenomenon occurs roughly once in every 500,000 live births globally.
Specialists Coordinate Plan to Extract Parasitic Mass
Following the endoscopic findings, hospital leadership coordinated across multiple departments—including pediatric hepatology, diagnostic radiology, anesthesiology, and the liver and biliary surgery division—to map out an extraction plan. Because of the patient’s young age and the unusual gastric location of the parasitic mass, surgeons proceeded with an exploratory operation.
This is an extremely rare case, and handling it required a high degree of precision in diagnosis, planning, and surgical intervention, alongside complete integration between various specialties. Thank God, the operation was successful, and the toddler is undergoing medical monitoring following the surgery, Osama Hegazy said
The surgical team successfully excised the entire malformed fetal formation from the child’s stomach. University officials confirmed that the procedure concluded without complications and that the infant’s health has stabilized while she remains under observation in the internal care ward.
Hospital Officials Highlight Rarity of Stomach Twin
Administrative officials emphasized that while most similar congenital masses are typically discovered in the retroperitoneal space within the abdominal cavity, finding an arrested twin inside the stomach remains an extraordinary clinical exception.
This success confirms that the strength of any medical institution relies not only on capabilities, but on the competence of the human element and its ability to work as one team. This is what we are keen to instill within the National Liver Institute at Menoufia University, ensuring the provision of specialized and safe medical care for patients, and handling complex and rare cases according to the highest levels of precision. Ahmed
The child continues to recover under specialized medical oversight at the institute, with doctors monitoring her nutritional recovery and gastric functions following the rare intervention.
