4-Month-Old Baby Born With 4 Kidneys In Rare Case Admitted To Hospital

A 4-month-old baby, who was admitted to a hospital in Egypt after suffering from fatigue, was found to have four kidneys.

The child was diagnosed with a condition called duplex kidney, which occurred in less than one case out of every 10,000 births.

According to local media reports, the unidentified child was taken to the Al-Arish General Hospital in North Sinai Governorate, following which doctors conducted a CT scan and ultrasound. This was when they found out the child had four kidneys, Egypt Today reported.

The child is currently in intensive care under medical supervision. The doctors said they are deciding whether the child needs surgical intervention, and if so, which procedure to use.

Duplex kidney, also known as duplicated ureters, occurs due to an incomplete fusion of the upper and lower pole of the kidney, which creates two separate drainage systems from the kidney. Duplex kidney is a result of errors in cell division that occur during the development of the fetus inside the mother’s womb.

The condition can be passed from the parent to the child, Gulf News reported. If one parent has a duplex kidney, the child has a 50 percent chance of also being born with this condition. However, it is unclear in this case if one of the parents was suffering from a duplex kidney.

While most people require no treatment, in some cases medical care might be needed, according to the Cleveland Clinic. These include ureteroureterostomy – the ectopic ureter is split near the bladder; ureteral reimplantation – the ectopic ureter is split near the bottom and sewn into the bladder; nephrectomy – some or all of the kidneys that are not working correctly are surgically removed. The last method is rarely used and is said to be a last resort.

In January, a rare case was reported in India, where a newborn baby was born with a rare human tail. The child underwent a surgery to fix the rare anomaly. The procedure was conducted by neurosurgeons at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital in the eastern state of Odisha. The baby, who has not been identified, was diagnosed with a spinal cord anomaly right after being born in November.