An unusual case of epigastric heteropagus: Parasite with a rudimentary heart

Parasitic or heterotopic conjoined twins are exceedingly rare, and these ca ses are referred to as "heteropagus" when there is a parasitic attachment i n a nonduplicated fashion to any portion of the body. Epigastric heteropagu s twinning refers to the attachment of the parasite to the epigastric regio n of the autosite. An unusual epigastric heteropagus case is presented with a rudimentary cardiopulmonary and also nearly complete gastrointestinal an d genitourinary system of the parasite, and an organogenetic and vascular s tatus of the previously reported cases are reviewed. The current case might be unique for the parasite having a cardiopulmonary development-although r udimentary-and this might be the reason that it has more complete organogen esis than the cases that have been presented previously in the literature. J Pediatr Surg 35:1523-1525. Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.