In a rare pediatric surgery on conjoined twins, a team of doctors at PGIMER, Chandigarh successfully separated them, giving then a new lease of life.
Jannat and Mannat from Saharanpur (UP) were brought to PGIMER at birth born as conjoined twins. They were joined at their abdomen and lower part of chest a condition called as Omphalophagus conjoined twins. They were 3 kg in combined weight and were very fragile.
The pediatric surgical team evaluated the kids and planned for surgery at a later date when they were big and strong enough to withstand the major procedure of separation.
In the meantime, they had their imaging in the form of CT and MRI to see the organs they shared. The twins had a conjoined liver in between, fortunately rest of their organs were separate. The surgical team took the child for separation surgery at the age of 3 months when they were 4.2 kilos. The case was extensively planned between pediatric surgery team, anaesthesia team, pediatric ICU and the radiologist.
The hospital administration representative helped to arrange for the surgical consumables free of cost to the patients as they were very poor and could not afford the expensive operation.
The operation was conducted on November 23. There were 2 surgical teams two anaesthesia teams and two post operative care teams defined for the procedure. There were 2 operation theatres prepared for this procedure and it took 8 hours for the entire team to separate the twins.
Jannnat did well from the beginning but Mannat being smaller of the two had to be kept on ventilator for some time. She has eventually recovered well and both girls are now are speedily recovering and ready to go home soon.
Doctors in the premier institute said this is a rare case scenario and a surgeon would be fortunate enough to see 2-3 cases in their life time.