• Advances in pediatric surgery
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.164-167
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• 1997

Conjoined twins are one of the rarest and most challenging congenital anomalies in pediatric surgery. Successful surgical separation is difficult because it the majority of conjoined twins in is technically typical to separate shared vital organs successfully. The timing of separation is variable, but separation is usually delayed until such infants are relatively mature(i.e, 9-12 months of age). Operative survival was 50 % in the neonatal period, but 90 % in those over 4 months of age. The present case was successfully separated early beacase of cardiac problems in one of the twins. These twins were omphalopagus and only the liver was shared through a bridge. The vascular and biliary trees were independent from each other. Successful surgical separation was on 11th day of life, but one died of sepsis 18 days after operation.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.378-383
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• 2021

Conjoined twins are rare, and each set of conjoined twins has a unique conjoined anatomy. It is necessary to perform separation to increase the chance of patient survival. Tissue expansion is an advanced technique for providing sufficient soft tissue and skin for wound closure. We report the successful application of rapid tissue expansion in 10-month-old xipho-omphalopagus conjoined twins in Vietnam. A tissue expander was placed on the anterior body between the sternum and umbilicus with a baseline of 70 mL sterile saline (0.9% NaCl). The first injection into the tissue expander began on the 6th day after expander insertion, and injections continued every 2 days with approximately 30-70 mL per injection according to the expansion of the skin. The expander reached 335 mL after six injections and within 10 days. In order to prepare for surgical separation, expansion was completed on the 15th day after insertion. The expanded skin area was estimated to be 180 cm², which was sufficient to cover both patients' skin deficiencies. The twins presented for surgical separation 6 days following the completion of tissue expansion. Both babies were discharged in good health 1 month after separation.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.97-99
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• 2016