In Brazil, a little girl was born prematurely with four kidneys. This extremely rare birth defect is difficult to find in the medical literature.
- In 2022, a little girl, Isis, was born with four kidneys, more precisely two on each side, due to a malformation.
- Because of a condition called “horseshoe kidney,” his lower organs were wired together.
- At the age of one, the child required surgery to remove one of the extra kidneys, which was not filtering blood.
“My daughter is rare and unique.” In 2022, 21-year-old Thalia Silva gave birth to a child who has four kidneys, specifically two on each side, according to the New York Post. During prenatal ultrasounds, doctors realized that the baby had a malformation, more precisely a kidney problem, but they did not know exactly what it was. It wasn’t until Isis was born that practitioners noticed she had extra organs.
“Horseshoe kidneys”: its lower organs were connected together
“Approximately 10% of children born worldwide have a congenital malformation, which can affect every organ in the human body. In the case of Isis, the malformation was linked to the structure that gives rise to the kidneys,” can we read in the press release from the José Alencar Children’s Hospital in Brasília (HCB), where the little girl was born. According to the health facility, his lower kidneys were connected together. This pathology is called “horseshoe kidneys”, due to the shape adopted by the connected organs.
According to health professionals, this disease poses no risk to the little girl. The fact that a child was born with more than two kidneys would not be a problem in itself, but one of Isis’s kidneys was blocked, causing swelling that damaged nearby organs. “This kidney was so large that it prevented other organs from functioning properly. His intestines, diaphragm and lungs were completely compressed by this large mass,” explained Hélio Buson, pediatric urologist at José Alencar Hospital in Brasília.
“There is no reason to keep a kidney that does not filter blood”
At the age of one, the infant had to have surgery. In detail, the medical team drained the kidney, then performed surgery to remove one of the supernumerary kidneys, which no longer had any function. “There is no reason to keep a kidney that does not filter blood. As she had three other kidneys that worked very well, we came to the conclusion that this one had to be removed, otherwise it would seriously harm her. his health”, said the doctor. After this intervention, Isis had to be closely monitored until she was released from the hospital.
According to Thalia Silva, her mother, her kidney function is stable for the moment, but she has some complications caused by the length of her intubation, “because she was born prematurely and spent a lot of time under sedation. Isis has very fragile lungs. That’s why every cold she catches turns into pneumonia and hospitalization is necessary.”
