One of the most fascinating human malformations is a conjoined twin. Numerous animals, from mammals to birds, reptiles, and amphibians, have been reported in the past having the condition.
Conjoined twins were previously called the Siamese twins from Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874), who were the first pair of conjoined twins to become internationally known. But the term has fallen out of favor because it seems to convey that these twins are circus freaks or monsters.
Twin sisters Ervina and Prefina, who had been joined from the back of the head since birth, are pictured with their mother Ermine before going into surgery in this handout photo made available on July 8, 2020, in Rome, Italy.
French renaissance surgeon Ambroise Pare classified the major types of conjoined twins in 1573. According to him, 75% of them are female, and 70% are joined in the thorax (thoracopagus) or the abdomen (omphalopagus).
A rare and most complex condition
Recently, twin sisters Ervina and Prefina, who had been joined in the head since birth, have been successfully separated at a hospital in the Vatican City. Doctors said that they have a rare condition of being a pair of conjoined twins.
The girls, aged 2, underwent an operation that lasted for 18 hours and involved 30 doctors and nurses, according to a press release published on Tuesday, July 7, by the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital.
Their operation took place on June 5. The twins are from the Central African Republic and are expected to make a full recovery. It is the first time that doctors in Italy have successfully separated conjoined twins in total posterior craniopagus--which means that the girls have one skull and share a majority of blood vessels.
As of date, there are no other cases of a successful intervention described in medical literature anywhere in the world. According to the team involved in the surgery, the twin girls' case is "one of the rarest and most complex forms of fusion," and for that, they prepared the intervention for more than one year.
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Conjoined twins separated in Vatican City
Mariella Enoc, the hospital president where the twins were operated, met the twins while she was on a trip to the Central African Republic two years ago, in July 2018. She decided then to offer to treat the girls in Rome.
It was in September 0218 when the twins arrived in Rome together with their mother, Ermine. The first stage of their treatment was carried out in May 2019. In June 2019, the second stage commenced after a month, and the twin girls were finally separated this year in June.
The hospital's head of neurosurgery, Carlo Marras, said that operating them was an exciting moment and a fantastic and unrepeatable experience.
"It was a very ambitious goal and we did everything to achieve it, with passion, optimism and joy," Marras said.
On June 29, the twins celebrated their second birthday, and medical checks show that they are doing well in their recovery. Their brains are intact, and both their motor and cognitive development should be normal, signaling that the operation was a successful one, the hospital said.
The twins' mother thanked the medical team for treating her daughters and said she would like them to be baptized by Pope Francis. She said that her twins have been born twice and that she would not know what fate they would have had if they have stayed in Africa.
"My little girls can now grow up, study and become doctors to save other children," Ermine said.
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