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Conjoined twins are whose bodies are joined together in utero. It is a rare phenomenon; it is estimated to range from 1 in 50,000 births to 1 in 200,000 births, with a somewhat in Southwest Asia and Africa. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1807-59322006000200013&script=sci_arttext Approximately half are Stillborn , and a smaller fraction of pairs born alive have abnormalities incompatible with life. The overall survival rate for conjoined twins is approximately 25%.The craniopagus malformation: classification and implications for surgical separation. James L. Stone and James T. Goodrich. Brain 2006 129(5):1084-1095 Abstract and free fullt text PDF About 70 to 75% of conjoined twin pairs are female. Conjoined twins form in one of two ways. The first is fission, in which the fertilized egg splits partially, resulting in two-to-one type conjoined twins, i.e. Dicephalus twins. The second is fusion, a more common type of conjoined twinning, in which a fertilized egg completely separates, but Stem Cell s (which search for similar cells) find like-stem cells on the other twin and fuse the twins together. This results in single and relative organ sharing, i.e. Thorapagus twins. Perhaps the most famous pair of conjoined twins was Chang And Eng Bunker ( 1811 – 1874 ), Chinese brothers born in Siam, now Thailand . They traveled with P.T. Barnum 's circus for many years and were billed as the Siamese Twins; due to their fame and the rarity of the condition, the term came to be used as a Synonym for conjoined twins, although in recent years the term has fallen out of favor and is considered a Pejorative term.http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,368509,00.html Chang and Eng were joined by a band of flesh, cartilage, and their shared liver at the torso. In modern times, they could have been separated easily.http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A369434 CONJOINED TWINS IN HISTORY '' ( 1493 ).]] Lima, Peru.]] The earliest known documented case of conjoined twins dates from the year , 1997. The English twin sisters Mary And Eliza Chulkhurst , who were conjoined at the back (pygopagus), lived from 1100 to 1134 and were perhaps the best-known early example of conjoined twins. Other early conjoined twins to attain notice were the "Scottish brothers", allegedly twins of the Dicephalus type, essentially two heads sharing the same body ( 1460 – 1488 , although the dates vary); the pygopagus Helen and Judith of Szony , Hungary ( 1701 – 1723 ), who enjoyed a brief career in music before being sent to live in a Convent ; and Rita and Cristina Parodi of Sardinia , born in 1829 . Rita and Cristina were dicephalus tetrabrachius (one body with four arms) twins and although they died at only eight months of age, they gained much attention as a curiosity when their parents exhibited them in Paris . Several sets of conjoined twins lived during the nineteenth century and made careers for themselves in the Performing Arts , though none achieved quite the same level of fame and fortune as Chang and Eng. Most notably, Millie And Christine McCoy (or McKoy), pygopagus twins, were born into slavery in North Carolina in 1851 . They were sold to a Showman , J.P. Smith, at birth, but were soon Kidnap ped by a rival showman. The kidnapper fled to England but was thwarted because England had already banned slavery. Smith traveled to England to collect the girls and brought with him their mother, Monimia, from whom they had been separated. He and his wife provided the twins with an education and taught them to speak five languages, play music, and sing. For the rest of the century the twins enjoyed a successful career as "The Two-Headed Nightingale" and appeared with the Barnum Circus. In 1912 they died of Tuberculosis , 17 hours apart. Giovanni and Giacomo Tocci, from Locana , Italy , were immortalized in Mark Twain 's short story "Those Extraordinary Twins" as fictitious twins Angelo and Luigi. The Toccis, born in 1877 , were dicephalus tetrabrachius twins, having one body with two legs, two heads, and four arms. From birth they were forced by their parents to perform and never learned to walk, as each twin controlled one leg (in modern times Physical Therapy allows twins like the Toccis to learn to walk on their own). They are said to have disliked show business. In 1886 , after touring the United States , the twins returned to Europe with their family, where they fell very ill. They are believed to have died around this time, though some sources claim they survived until 1940 , living in seclusion in Italy. Conjoined twins who appeared in the public eye during the 20th and 21st centuries include:
LEGENDARY CONJOINED TWINS
TYPES OF CONJOINED TWINS There are several different types of conjoined twins:
In some cases, parts of the Brain have been known to be shared between conjoined twins joined at the head. Occasionally one of the twins will fail to develop properly, effectively acting as a ning or heteropagus twins. One twin may absorb the other, which is known as Inclusion Twin ning. Natural death of the twins can occur within hours or a few days. SEPARATION Surgery to separate conjoined twins may range from relatively simple to extremely complex, depending on the point of attachment and the internal parts that are shared. Most cases of separation are extremely risky and life-threatening. In many cases, the surgery results in the death of one or both of the twins, particularly if they are joined at the head. Saudi Arabia holds the most successful separation rate. The U.A.E. currently has the lowest success separation rate. REFERENCES
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