title: Successful separation of two pairs of conjoined twins in Ile Ife, Nigeria: case reports.
abstract: Conjoined twins are rare phenomena occurring in one in 1 in 50,000 live births. Successful surgical separation of conjoined twins is a major undertaking requiring careful planning by a multidisciplinary team. Reports of seperation of joined twins in developing countries like Nigeria are rare. Ten cases of conjoined twins were separated between 1936 and January 2003 (including the authors two new cases). There were five omphalopagus, two pygopagus, two heterpagus and one ishiopagus twins. Three underwent emergency separation with 83.3% mortality while seven underwent elective seperation with 64.3% survival. The overall mortality rate was 50%. Despite the absence of advanced technological resource selected group of conjoined twins can be successfully separated in a developing country like Nigeria. An improvement in facilities and availability of trained personnel in likely to be associated with improved outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, OAUTHC, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Adejuyigbe
authors.forename: O A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Sowande
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Olabanji
authors.forename: E O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Komolafe
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Faponle
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Adetiloye
authors.forename: O C
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Famurewa
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Akinyoola
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003125:Colostomy; D003906:Developing Countries; D004452:Echocardiography; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D019990:Perioperative Care / Q000379:methods; D035583:Rare Diseases; D015996:Survival Rate; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014428:Twins, Conjoined / Q000145:classification / Q000601:surgery*