Lydia and Maya have become the most famous twins at Bern's Inselspital hospital for being the youngest siamese to be separated barely eight days old.
They were born at 32 weeks in a triple twin pregnancy with just 2.2 kilos of weight. In theory, the operation to separate the Siamese twins is carried out a few months later to avoid undergoing such a complex intervention to babies so small, and in this case, over premature.
The three girls were born on December 2, two of them joined by the liver, abdomen and heart. The third was born separated and healthy.
The idea was to wait a while, but a few days later began to present complications that made them make a drastic decision. One of the twins had a lot of blood and very high pressure, while the other had hypotension, so the doctors decided to intervene immediately in an operation that lasted 5 hours.
Maya and Lydia are recovering in the pediatric intensive care unit of the hospital and have started feeding with breast milk, although they will need more operations to close their abdominal walls.
How are Siamese twins formed?
It is a strange phenomenon classified within the rare cases of twins, which occurs in about one in 200,000 births, and its name is due to the case of Siam twins born in 1811.
Normally, embryo division occurs within the first 13 days after fertilization, but when it occurs late, after the thirteenth day, the division is incomplete causing babies to develop coupled or fused. When the division later occurs, more organs will share.
Depending on the part of the body that joins them, they are classified into: thoracophages (joined by the sternal region, pigópagos (united by the back), isquiópagos (united by the pelvis) and craniopagos (united by the head).
The cause that causes an incomplete division is foreign to genes, that is, it is not inherited nor will it be transmitted to the children. Depending on the connection between the two brothers, the possibility of separating them through surgical intervention is assessed. The operation is very complex but we have already seen in the news several cases of Siamese brothers who have been successfully separated.
Siamese originate from a single fertilized egg, so they are always identical and of the same sex. 50% of Siamese twins are born dead and the overall survival rate is 5 to 25%.
