AIIMS separates twins joined at the head |
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences has successfully conducted India`s first craniopagus surgery to separate 28-month-old twins from Odisha, who were joined at the head. AIIMS said Jagga and Kalia, who underwent an 18-hour-long surgery, are “critical” and that they are on ventilator support. A team of 40 doctors from over 12 different super-specialities operated on the twins from Milipada village in Odisha. The twins, who were admitted to the hospital on July 13, were born with an extremely rare condition — joined at the top of their heads, with their bodies at 180 degrees to each other.Since 1973, only 60 such surgeries have taken place across the world. The last one was reported from Philadelphia in June this year. Out of every 3 million children, only one pair is conjoined; and of all conjoined twins, only 2 per cent are craniopagus. There is a less than 20% chance of survival among craniopagus twins undergoing surgery, data shows.Professor A K Mahapatra, chief of the neurosciences centre at AIIMS, who headed the team, said “the blood pressure and heart rate of the twins are stable”. In this stage, we faced challenges of blood loss and there was massive blood transfusion, he said. In this case, 70% of the brain was infused in one twin, and the rest 30% was infused in the other.
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