A team of neurosurgeons at the government Super Specialty Hospital (SSH) have successfully removed a 18-cm long human tail, apparently the longest recorded so far, from the back of a teenaged boy after its abnormal growth turned painful for him.
The doctors operated upon the 18-year-old boy with the 18 cm tail growing from the posterior end of the body on the back.
The head of the neurosurgery department and the team, Dr Pramod Giri Tuesday said though the family knew about this unusual growth, they did not see a doctor due to the social stigma and superstition attached to it.
Besides, it was not affecting his health anyway.
“Generally, the defect is detected very early as it is present from birth and since it grows with age it cannot remain undetected. But the parents as well as the child hid the fact all these years. The defect can be surgically corrected within few months of birth,” the doctors said.
When it became very painful for the boy, his parents brought him to SSH last week and was operated upon two days back.
“When the size of the tail grew and a bone developed inside it, the tail began to press on the boys back. It was cosmetically and psychologically disturbing for him. Hence the parents approached us,” Dr Giri explained.
