ACARDIAC ANCEPS FETUS- A CASE REPORT

Abstract

An interesting rare case of lethal fetopathy is described. This case is based on morphological and histological confirmation. Fetus acardius is a parasite for its vascular circulation from the donor twin. The twin reversed arterial perfusion syndrome is an extremely rare manifestation of feto-fetal transfusion in twin pregnancy where the affected twin receives retrograde vascular supply from the healthy twin. Acardiac twin syndrome is a rare complication affecting monozygotic twins where one twin fails to have normal development. In this report we present an acardiac anceps fetus seen at term gestation and delivered by caesarean section, the other twin is a healthy, well formed baby. At the time of caesarean section, the live baby was delivered first and as the placenta was extracted, the malformed fetus was attached to the chorionic plate of the same placenta. A thin cord with one vascular channel was the only communication between placenta and malformed fetus which was later delivered and collected for the study.