Successful separation of ischiopagus tripus conjoined twins with one twin suffering from brain damage.

To our knowledge, until 1988, the year we performed our operation, only six other cases of ischiopagus tripus conjoined twins had been separated in the world. In our case, operated on in October 1988, one twin remained in a vegetative state after an episode of acute and dramatic encephalitis. However, the separation was successfully performed and now, 3 years after the operation, the two continue to live. The particularities of this case and the factors that made the separation successful are reported.