Human Double Monster (So-Called Siamese Twins)

The Surgical Separation of Siamese Twins Conjoined by the Heads (Cephalopagus Frontalis) Followed by Normal Development

“…Most of the reports on Siamese twins joined by their heads relate to stillbirths or to viable infants surviving but a short time (Blumensaat, 1932;Mortimer and Kirshbaum, 1942;Gunter, 1946;Coulton, Hertig, and Long, 1947;Leinzinger and Scherrer, 1953;Haug and Leonhardt, 1955, and others). The known instances when surgical separation of cephalopagous was attempted are only few.…”

“…Various authors (Mortimer and Kirshbaum, 1942;Potter, 1952) give figures ranging from one in 60,000 to one in 85,000 births for various types of Siamese twins either alive or stillborn. In 117 conjoined twins, a series of which was compiled by Robertson (1953) from Taruffi's eight-volume study on heratology (Storia della Teratologia, Bologna, Regia Tipografia, 1881-94), thoracopagus was present in 86, pygopagus in 22, ischiopagus in seven, and cephalopagus in two only.…”

Successful separation of ischiopagus tetrapus—Conjoined twins

“…Taruffi has collected 14 of this variety,37 11 of whom were female and the sex unidentified in three. Other cases have been reported by Wilder, 39 Mortimer, 21 Gemmill,14 Fox,13 and Rueff.30 Schlumberger and Gotwals32 have described in some detail the morbid anatomy of this variety of conjoined twins in two additional instances.…”

“…The rarity of these last two groups can be well appreciated in view of the incidence of conjoined twins stillborn or alive of 1 in 50,000 to 60,000 births. 21 '28 Ischiopagus twins may be subdivided according to the number of lower extremities present. The rarest variety is ischiopagus bipus with no lower extremities on one side (Monstrum Anglicum born Salisbury, England, October 26, 1664).39 The most common variety is the ischiopagus tripus in which the lower extremities on one side are represented by a composite limb.…”

A Case of Conjoined Twins (Thoracopagus)

“…Thoracopagus appears to be the commonest lype of conjoined tw ins, and this is borne out by Robertso n (1953) who quotes a figure of 73 per ce nt, by Hirst quoted hy Mortimer and Kirschbaum (1942) and by Ysa nder (1924) who produce smaller but none the less significant figures of 38.6 and 30.7 per cent respectively. In Lu and Lee's (1967) series four out of five of their cases were of the thoracopagic variety.…”