Child's nervous system : ChNS : official journal of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery
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We present the case of 2-year-old craniopagus twins who are in the process of undergoing a staged separation of their craniums. In addition, they will undergo a full calvarial vault remodeling to reconstruct the lacking skull and scalp tissue in each child. We elected to do a staged separation rather than a single marathon operation for various reasons, which we will detail in this report. ⋯ Successful separation of viable conjoined twins has been historically a great rarity. Successful separation of twins where both have come out of surgery without any neurological deficit remains a rare occurrence and in our mind the ultimate goal.
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Review Case Reports
Craniopagus twins: embryology, classification, surgical anatomy, and separation.
With recent advances in brain imaging and neurosurgical techniques, there has been a renewed interest in the surgical separation of craniopagus twins. Successful separation in recent cases, along with widespread publicity, has attracted craniopagus twins from all over the world to be referred to pediatric neurosurgical centers for evaluation and consideration for surgical separation. ⋯ We discuss here our experience with three sets of craniopagus twins and our approach to staged separation.