Surgery Considered for Baby With 3 Arms

Doctors in Shanghai on Tuesday were considering surgery options for a two-month old boy born with an unusually well-formed third arm.Neither of the boy's two left arms is fully functional and tests have so far been unable to determine which was more developed, said Dr. Chen Bochang, head of the orthopedics department at Shanghai Children's Medical Center.

"His case is quite peculiar. We have no record of any child with such a complete third arm," Chen said in a telephone interview. "It's quite difficult to decide how to do the operation on him."

The boy, identified only as "Jie-jie," also was born with just one kidney and may have problems that could lead to curvature of the spine, according to local media reports. Jie-jie cried when either of his left arms was touched, but smiled and responded normally to other stimuli, the reports said. - abc