Surgeons separate twins joined at head

Sudanese girls brought to Britain for series of operations are finally parted at Great Ormond Street hospital Conjoined twin girls born with the tops of their heads fused together have been separated in a rare and risky series of operations at London’s Great Ormond Street hospital. Eleven-month-old Rital and Ritag Gaboura who are from Sudan were flown to Britain for the surgery which took place in four stages, with two operations in May, one in July and the final one on 15 August. Tissue expanders which are essentially balloons intended to help stretch the babies’ skin over their newly exposed heads were inserted in July. Twins born joined at the head are known as craniopagus twins and they occur in about one in 2.5 million births. Separating them can be dangerous, especially if as in this case, there is significant blood flow between their brains. However, a failure to operate can be equally dangerous as conjoined twins almost never pump the blood across their bodies evenly and the strongest sibling strains his or her heart trying to pick up the slack. Facing the World, a charity which helps disfigured children, said that Ritag’s overworked heart was already failing by the time her family arrived in Britain. Lead surgeon David Dunaway said: “Incidences of surviving twins with this condition are extremely rare. The task presented innumerable challenges and we were all very aware of our responsibilities to the family and these two little girls.” Even successful operations can leave neurological damage, but experts are confident Rital and Ritag are healthy. “Within days the twins were back on the general ward interacting and playing as before,” said Sarah Driver-Jowitt, from Facing the World. Driver-Jowitt predicted that the girls’ parents, who have not been named, may soon return home “with two healthy, separate girls”. Although rare, operations to separate twins linked by their heads have been carried out for many years. The American National Library of Medicine records that one of the first successful operations took place in 1956. In 2003, surgeons in Dallas separated Egyptian craniopagus twins and a year later doctors separated Filipino twins in four major surgeries that took place over a period of 10 months. London Health Children Sudan Damien Pearse guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 18, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.