AAPS 104th Annual Meeting

•Conjoined twinning is a rare anomaly occurring in about 1 in 200,000 live births, most commonly involving thoracic or abdominal fusion.

•Separation can create complex, unique soft tissue defects that require coordinated multidisciplinary planning and implementation of plastic surgical principles.

•Tissue expansion (TE), first described for conjoined twin separation in 1986, is now a key strategy at our institution for generating adequate soft tissue coverage.

•Our institution has separated 33 pairs of conjoined twins over 44 years. We review our recent experience to highlight lessons in surgical planning, soft tissue management, and multidisciplinary coordination.

•Retrospective review of elective conjoined twin separations involving plastic surgery at CHOP (2011–2024).

•Data collected included patient characteristics, conjoinment type, tissue expansion use and complications, reconstructive techniques, and postoperative outcomes.

•Tissue expansion in a population with limited mobility carries substantial complication risks.

•Comorbidities may delay separation and compromise survival.

•At our institution, advances in team preparedness, wound care, and reconstructive strategies have contributed to successful separations.

An Update on Lessons Learned After Conjoined Twin Separation
A Fifteen-Year Single Institution Review

Miriam Meghnagi MS, Isabel A Ryan BS, Holly L Hedrick MD, Oksana A Jackson MD, David W Low MD, Cassandra A Ligh MD

AAPS 104th Annual Meeting

An Update On Lessons Learned After Conjoined Twin Separation: A Fifteen-year Single Institution Review

Poster Presenter

Authors

Affiliations

Part of Topic