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Craniopagus Parasiticus
Craniopagus Parasiticus
BY: Mariana Cantrell
Myranda Byouk
The underdeveloped twin is termed the parasite, and the developed twin is termed the autosite. The autosite may have some abnormalities as well, but for the most part it has developed enough to where it can live on its own.
What is it?
How does it happen?
Craniopagus Parasiticus is when baby is born with body parts of the other twin attached to it.
Treatment
The exact development of craniopagus parasiticus isn't well known. Parasitic twins are known to occur in utero when monozygotic twins start to develop as an embryo, but the embryo fails to completely split. When this happens one embryo will dominate development while the others' development is severely altered.
The key difference between a parasitic twin and conjoined twins is that in parasitic twins, one twin, the parasite, stops development during gestation, while the other twin, the autosite, develops completely.
With so few individuals actually surviving until birth, the only treatment option is surgery. During surgery the goal is to try to remove the parasitic twin. Surgery however is very dangerous and has only been successful once. The problem with surgical intervention is that the arterial supplies of the head are so intertwined that is very hard to control the bleeding, and it has been suggested that cutting off the parasitic twin's arterial supply might improve the odds of the developed twin's survival.
How many people have had it?
There have only been ten documented cases of craniopagus parasiticus (though to-date at least eighty cases of craniopagus have been written about in various records.) Only three have been documented by modern medicine to have survived birth.