DICEPHALUS DIPUS DIBRACHIUS - AN UNUSUAL CASE OF CONJOINED TWINS

Conjoined twinning is a rare anomaly, occurring its one of every 50,00 0 births, Dicephalus dipus dibrachius is an extremely rare form of con joined twinning in which the infant has two arms, two legs, one trunk, but two heads, These infants are often stillborn or die shortly after birth. The authors describe a case of dicephalus twinning with 11-day survival, A thorough investigation using multiple imaging modalities (plain radiographs, contrast studies, ultrasonography, and magnetic re sonance imaging) demonstrated that these twins had separate spinal col umns but shared multiple internal organs including heart, liver, pancr eas, intestine and bladder, Based on the anatomy of this case, the aut hors conclude that separation of dicephalus dipus dibrachius twins sho uld not be attempted. Copyright (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company