Conjoined Twins: Developmental Malformations and Clinical Implications

This book represents many years of dedicated study by a respected pediatric surgeon with a passionate interest in conjoined twinning. Her extensive clinical experience and unparalleled familiarity with 20th century case reports led me to expect a superb treatise on clinical and anatomical aspects of this subject. It was disappointing to find the book to be centered primarily upon her controversial theory of embryogenesis. Embryological speculation occupies many pages that could have been devoted to topics relevant to the expertise of the author and the needs of her clinical colleagues. Many challenging technical and ethical problems involved in the management of conjoined patients are ignored, and most of the others are given only brief attention. Illustrations, an indispensable feature of any treatise on conjoined twinning, are relatively sparse and unhelpful, with virtually no illustrations of internal anatomy. Most of the figures are diagrams based upon her embryological speculations, or drawings and photos of external features. The surgeon, pathologist, or radiologist puzzling over the anatomical peculiarities of a case of conjoined twins will likely be disappointed by the relative paucity of detailed anatomical description and useful illustrations in this book.