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UAE has high number of Siamese twins

ABU DHABI - There is a sizeable number of Siamese twins in the UAE, an expert has said.

In the UAE, the incidence of conjoined twins is high. It is like an epidemic but cannot be explained in terms of the total number of delivery, keeping in view the mobile community of the country made up of different nationalities, said Dr Mohammed Amin Al Gohary, consultant and head of paediatric surgery at Al Mafraq Hospital.

In an interview to Khaleej Times yesterday, Dr Gohary said the total incidence of conjoined twins worldwide is 1:80,000 and 50 per cent are usually born dead. "The incidence of conjoined twins born alive is 1:160,000 and 50 per cent of them are amenable to surgery while the chance of having a successful separation is 1:500,000," he said.

This indicates the rarity of the incidence and the difficulty of depending on total number of delivery to compile statistics on Siamese twins, especially in amultinational communities," said Dr Gohary.

He said in the UAE, the incidence is spread over different nationalities in the country and it is difficult to say that one nationality might have more cases of Siamese twins than others.

"Since 1985 to 2002, there were 15 sets of conjoined twins in the country which is considered a colossal number for population like the UAE," he said.

The conjoined twins, which were either born in the UAE or transferred from other countries included two babies joined at their chest and abdomen and shared part of the rib cage, he said.

They underwent a successful separation surgery at Al Mafraq Hospital in December 1985, said Dr Gohary.

Another case was of twins joined at the chest and abdomen but shared one heart.

Surgeons have decided not to operate on the twins as mortality rate was high because they shared a vital organ, said Dr Gohary.

Three sets of incomplete twins or (tetopagus), one of which was referred from Somalia with a trunk attached to his pelvis, were successfully separated at Mafraq Hospital.

"We have also had a unique case of a twin projecting from the mouth of the other twin, and recently there have been three successful separations for two Iraqi twins, who were joined at the pelvis and a set of twins joined at their lower backs, said Dr Gohary.

According to Dr Gohary, this kind of birth is the result of one sperm and one ovum that failed to separate during an early stage of development and remained attached to each other.

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