Doctors in India have successfully separated conjoined twin boys who
were attached at the skull in a marathon surgical procedure that lasted
more than 36 hours and involved 40 doctors.
The two-year-old twins, who suffered a rare condition occurring once
in about 2.5 million births, underwent the operation at a government-run
hospital in New Delhi on Wednesday.
“It was a team work of 40 doctors, 20 nurses and many other
paramedical staff. Without their help this would not have been
possible,” the All India Institute of Medical Science hospital said in a
statement.
One of the surgeons involved said the most challenging aspect was
repairing the holes left in the young boys’ heads after they were
separated.
The twins were born in a village in the eastern state of Orissa with shared blood vessels and some shared brain tissue.
The twins were born in a village in the eastern state of Odisha with
shared blood vessels and some shared brain tissue. They had undergone
the first phase of the separation surgery in August.
“The most challenging job after the separation was to provide a skin
cover on both sides of the brain for the children as the surgery had
left large holes on their heads,” said Maneesh Singhal, a plastic
surgeon who was a part of the operating team.
“The skin was generated from the expansion of two balloons which were
placed inside their heads during the first surgery in August,” Singhal
told AFP on Friday.
“The next step will be reconstruction of their skulls,” he added.
Conjoined siblings are identical twins who are born with their skin
and internal organs fused together, according to the University of
Maryland Medical Centre website.
About half are stillborn, and the survival rate is between five and 25 percent.
They develop from a single egg, which splits in the case of healthy twins, but not fully in the case of conjoined siblings.
AFP
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