Twin boys with same rare disease treated in Shanghai
Shanghai's Xinhua Hospital has announced the success of surgery on a pair of eight-month-old twins with the same rare disease that caused difficulty in defecation.
Doctors conducted detailed checks and confirmed that the twin boys suffered from Currarion Syndrome, a rare congenital disorder featuring triad of a presacral mass, sacral agenesis and an anorectal anomaly. The incidence is one in every 100,000 persons and misdiagnosis is very likely, according to Xinhua Hospital experts.
Both twin babies being diagnosed with the same disease is even rarer, as in this case. Only two similar such cases had been reported in the world before.
The babies also had tethered spinal cord syndrome, a neurological disorder caused by tissue attachments that limit the movement of the spinal cord within the spinal column. Had they not received timely treatment, they ran the risk of nerve damage with serious outcome.
Though the two boys suffered from the same disease, each had his own features. Doctors came up with individualized surgical plans to ensure the treatment was effective.
The surgery conducted on the twin boys was successful.
The surgery on March 15 went smoothly and both babies were discharged one week later.
Dr Lu Fan from the hospital's general surgery department said the two boys are expected to have proper prognosis, while doctors will follow their condition and offer advise and timely treatment in the future.
Though Currarino Syndrome is called a rare disease, patients with its symptoms are not very rare. There is a possibility that patients with the disease fail to receive the correct diagnosis in clinical practice. So both medics and parents should be alert, said doctors from Xinhua Hospital, which houses the Shanghai Rare Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Center and the Shanghai Children's Rare Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Center.
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