Separation Of Conjoined Twins Underway In California

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Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 14 Jun 2006 - 15:00 PST

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A team of 80 people began to separate conjoined twins at 0600 hours today in California. Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros, aged 10 months, are connected from the breast bone down to the pelvis and everything in between - this includes their intestine, bladders, genital organs, liver and bony pelvis.

Regina and Renata, who were born in Los Angeles, have already undergone several medical procedures during their short lives.

Two doctors in the team, Dr. Stein and Dr. Dominic Femino, successfully separated conjoined twins in 2003.

This operation, which is being carried out at Los Angeles Children's Hospital, is expected to take 24 hours to complete. When their organs are separated they will have to be rebuilt.

The girls are conjoined in such a way that it would be impossible for them ever to be able to manage crossing the road, said Dr. Stein.

The girls' mother, Sonia Fierros, is hoping her daughters may eventually lead as normal a life as possible.

What Are Conjoined Twins?

There are 2 types of twins:

-- Fraternal Twins and
-- Identical Twins

-- Fraternal Twins come from two different eggs (dizygotic).
-- Identical Twins come from the same single egg (monozygotic), the developing embryo splits into two.

-- Identical Twins look very much like each other
-- Fraternal Twins are as similar to each other as normal siblings are.

(Monozygotic = They result from the fertilization of one egg by one sperm Dizygotic = They are the result of two eggs that are fertilized by two sperm)

-- Fraternal Twins can be the same sex or different sexes.
-- Identical Twins are the same gender.

Conjoined Twins are Identical Twins, but when the embryo starts to split, on the 13th day after conception, it does not do so completely - parts of the two stay stuck together. The two embryos mature into two fetuses that have parts of their bodies stuck to each other.

For some reason, more conjoined twins are girls than boys. For every pair of male conjoined twins born, three pairs of female conjoined twins are born. This is puzzling, because male identical twins are more common than female identical twins.

About 1 in every 40,000 to 70,000 births are conjoined twins. Only 1 in every 200,000 live births are conjoined twins.

40% of conjoined twins are stillborn, 75% are either stillborn or do not survive beyond their first 24 hours of life.

For more information on Conjoined Twins, click below:
http://www.conjoined-twins.i-p.com

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today