Conjoint twinning in the Maltese islands.

Conjoined twinning is a relatively rare event in any community, with a rate of 1.58 per 100,000 maternities reported in the EUROCAT database. The present study reviews the historical records for conjoined twins born in a closed Central Mediterranean archipelago population with particular reference to the last three decades. While the natural monozygotic twinning rates in the Maltese Islands corresponds to that reported from other communities, the incidence of conjoined twinning in the Maltese Islands has been shown by the present study to be significantly 2.5-times higher than that reported by the remaining EUROCAT contributors. The rate reported from the Maltese Islands by this review is 3.98 per 100,000 maternities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]