Heteropagus (parasitic) twins

Abstract

Heteropagus (parasitic) twin is a type of conjoined twinning in which a partially formed defective twin is attached to an otherwise normal twin. It is an extremely rare anomaly. In this paper, we describe five cases we encountered over the past 9 years. Except one, all presented early within a few days of birth. None of them shared an organ but two had bony/visceral connections. All surgeries were successful, and we only encountered wound complications. To the best of our knowledge this is the largest compilation of original cases in a parasitic twin report. Keywords: Conjoined twin, Parasitic twin, Heteropagus twin, Ethiopia