Diprosopus with associated malformations: Report of two cases

Abstract

We report on two patients with craniofacial duplication and anencephaly. In addition to these anomalies, one patient showed vertebral fusion and diaphragmatic hernia, and the other one presented cheilognathopalatoschisis.

Epidemiological and clinical analysis of a consecutive series of conjoined twins in Spain

“…The diprosopus case presented by Wu et al [15] was a boy, as were the cases described by Ornoy et al [19] and that reported by Castilla et al [7]. However, the 2 diprosopus cases described by Pavone et al [20] were females, as were the cases described by Riccardi and Bergmann [21] and the 2 cases described here. Thus, given the sex ratio of previously published diprosopus cases, it remains unclear whether diprosopus conjoined twins are more frequently females.…”

Conjoined twin piglets with duplicated cranial and caudal axes

“…Many varieties of the diprosopic condition have been described in various animals and species (bovine, Saperstein, 1981;buffalo, Misk and ,Hifny, 1988;feline, Sekeles et al, 1985;Camon et al, 1990;human, Moerman et al, 1983;Machin and Sperber, 1987;Pavone et al, 1987;ovine, Dennis, 1975). Similarly, there are many varieties of secondary defects.…”

Diprosopus Associated with Neural Tube Defect and Facial Cleft in theFirst Trimester

“…Duplication of the brain is not always amenable to ultrasound in diprosopus since most cases are anencephalic [1-3, 5, 8-10]. Diprosopus can also be associated with spina bifida [7,8], hydrocephalus [6] and encephalocele [11], but often presents as a major craniorrhachischisis [1-3, 5, 9, 10]. Other commonly associated abnormalities include cleft lip and palate [1,12], diaphragmatic hernia [6][7][8] and cardiac defects [7,8].…”

“…Diprosopus can also be associated with spina bifida [7,8], hydrocephalus [6] and encephalocele [11], but often presents as a major craniorrhachischisis [1-3, 5, 9, 10]. Other commonly associated abnormalities include cleft lip and palate [1,12], diaphragmatic hernia [6][7][8] and cardiac defects [7,8]. A strong association between diprosopus and neural tube defects supports the hypothesis that conjoined twins and neural tube defects may share some pathological mechanism secondary to a failure of the rostral neuropore to close.…”

“…Characteristic features include partial or complete duplication of facial structures in one head with forking at the level of the cervical spine. It is almost always associated with other anomalies such as neural tube defect, diaphragmatic hernia or cardiac malformations [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”