A rare birth defect.. A baby girl with a 6-cm-long tail (photo)

In a rare phenomenon, a baby girl was born in Brazil with a 6-cm-long tail that was covered in skin and protruding from her back, and surgeons were able to remove it.

And the Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports published incredible before and after surgery photos, showing the girl 3 years after the life-changing operation.

In the details, the girl, whose identity was not mentioned in the surgeons’ reports, was born with “spina bifida”, a rare congenital defect in the spine that occurs in the womb, and causes a gap in the spine.

This condition is a type of neural tube defect, a structure in a developing fetus that eventually becomes the baby’s brain, spinal cord, and the tissues that surround them.

While surgeons were able to remove the tail, doctors from Grendaac Children’s Hospital in São Paulo revealed that the tail had spread from the lumbosacral region, the area that connects the spine to the pelvis. The team also diagnosed this extra tissue as a “false human tail”.

It is noteworthy that less than 200 cases of this phenomenon, which is an abnormal condition during pregnancy, have been recorded.