Conjoined twins from Uganda were successfully separated after a 16-hour surgery last week in Columbus, Ohio, according to the hospital in a statement on Tuesday.
The 11-month-old twin girls, Acen and Apio, were connected at the hip and pelvic region. They are expected to make a full recovery, according to the Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Two separate individuals
Three-dimensional modeling, as well as intra-operative neurophysiological monitoring, was used to help the neurosurgeons divide their intertwined spines, muscles and tissues, said Dr. Gail Besner, chief of pediatric surgery at the hospital. Plastic surgery covered the areas where they were conjoined.
“My hope is that they will be able to sit up on their own, walk and play like any other child,” Dr. Besner said. “I can’t wait to watch them grow.”
Doctors are extremely pleased with the outcome of the surgery. The twins and their mother, Ester Akello, arrived at the hospital in December. It’s still not confirmed when they’ll be ready to go back home to Uganda.
“Given the breadth and depth of expertise of all of our specialists, we have the potential at Nationwide Children’s to take two patients who would never have been able to have a normal life as they were before and make them into two separate individuals who, I expect, will have healthy and normal lives,” said Dr. Besner.
Separating Twins
Conjoined twins occur once every 200,000 pregnancies, and their survival is anything but assured. The surgical separation of conjoined twins is an extremely delicate and risky procedure, requiring extra precision and care.
This surgery marks the fourth operation since 1978 to separate conjoined twins. Statistics show that the overall survival rate of children affected by this condition is somewhere between 5 percent and 25 percent, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. The decision to separate twins is a serious one. Doctors must first carefully assess how the twins’ shared organs function.
Stories of conjoined twins
This weekend, a Minnesota mother who gave birth to conjoined twins in Denver last month posted the first photo of her daughter Hannah. Amber McCullough had to say goodbye to her other twin girl, Olivia, whose heart was unsalvageable, USA Today reported.
The most famous case of conjoined twins is perhaps that of Abigail and Brittany Hensel, who shared their story in a documentary film by Barcroft – “The Twins Who Share A Body”. The movie takes a look at the dicephalus, or two-headed, conjoined twins from Minnesota, who share a body waist down but have two heads, two hearts, two lungs, two stomachs and two spines. Their extremely unusual form of conjoinment affects only one-in-a-million births.
Photo image courtesy of Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
