Who is affected by conjoined twins?
Conjoined twins are estimated to occur in around 1.5 per 100,000 births worldwide. Females are affected more often than males; about 75% of conjoined twins are female.
What are the risks of separating conjoined twins?
The operation to separate conjoined twins is very high-risk. If they’re joined at the head, one twin has most blood vessels going into the head, while the other one has a lot of drainage. All the connections have to be divided separately and over a period of time, so the twins can develop a circulation for themselves.
Are conjoined twins a birth defect?
Conjoined twins (CT) are a very rare developmental accident of uncertain etiology. Prevalence has been previously estimated to be 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 100,000 births. The process by which monozygotic twins do not fully separate but form CT is not well understood.
How difficult is the life of conjoined twins from normal babies?
Even so, about 40% of conjoined twins are not alive when they are born. About 35% die within a day after they are born because their organs cannot support them. Our treatment goal is to give both children the best chance for a good quality of life. Sometimes surgery to separate the twins is the best option.
What should I eat to have twins?
Although there can appear to be a pattern in some families of this happening, the odds of having identical twins is the same for every woman. Eating a diet which is high in dairy foods, milk and meat is said to help, especially at the time of ovulation.
Are there any signs or symptoms of conjoined twins?
Please try again later. There are no specific signs or symptoms that indicate a conjoined twin pregnancy. As with other twin pregnancies, the uterus may grow faster than with a single fetus, and there may be more fatigue, nausea and vomiting early in the pregnancy. Conjoined twins can be diagnosed early in the pregnancy using standard ultrasound.
Is it possible for conjoined twins to die?
The risk of fatality in conjoined twins is very high. Conjoined twins are still a sort of mystery to the scientific community. It has been observed that Latin America has greater incidence of conjoined twins as compared to the United States or Europe. Most conjoined twins die in the womb (stillborn) or shortly after birth.
How is a woman with conjoined twins treated?
A woman with conjoined twins is kept under close and continuous supervision by a team of doctors throughout the pregnancy. This helps the doctors to learn more about the twins’ anatomy, functional capabilities and prognosis after birth which in turn will help them to design specific treatment plans.
How are conjoined twins different from monoamniotic twins?
Conjoined twins maintain a fixed relationship to each other and have an area of contiguous skin covering differentiating them from monoamniotic twins that move independently of each other and are completely separate, even if mobility is limited by cord entanglement.
Please try again later. There are no specific signs or symptoms that indicate a conjoined twin pregnancy. As with other twin pregnancies, the uterus may grow faster than with a single fetus, and there may be more fatigue, nausea and vomiting early in the pregnancy. Conjoined twins can be diagnosed early in the pregnancy using standard ultrasound.
What’s the life expectancy of a conjoined twin?
Though not all conjoined twins can be separated. More than half cases of conjoined twin babies arrive stillborn and about 35 percent live for a day only. The conjoined twins life expectancy is somewhere between 5 to 25 percent. It is also seen that female conjoined babies have more survival rate than male babies.
If the twins are viable, the parents may decide to surgically separate them, a procedure specific to each case. Surgical complications include the formation of blood clots in newly formed vessels, cranial bleeding, heart complications, and infections.
Are there any conjoined twins that are stillborn?
Though many conjoined twins are not alive when born (stillborn) or die shortly after birth, advances in surgery and technology have improved survival rates. Some surviving conjoined twins can be surgically separated.