Doctors at AIIMS Delhi successfully operated on and separated conjoined twins Riddhi and Siddhi, who were joined from the chest and upper part of the belly. The twins were separated on June 8 following a nine-hour-long surgery.
Born on July 7, Riddhi and Siddhi were diagnosed prior to birth as thoracic-omphalopagus conjoined twins in the fourth month of pregnancy of Deepika Gupta in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly, said Dr Minu Bajpai, head of the Department of Paediatric Surgery. They were in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for five months after their birth.
Subsequently, the twins were referred to AIIMS.
“The anomaly was peculiar with fused rib cages, livers, partially common diaphragms and fused pericardium (outer covering of the heart). Both hearts were very close to each other, almost touching and beating in contact. The pericardium was partially fused,” Dr Prabudh Goel, Additional Professor in the Department of Paediatric Surgery was quoted by PTI as saying.
Dr Goel added that the girls underwent the surgery at the age of 11 months when they were old enough to tolerate the trauma of the procedure. Surgical repair was completed for each twin separately, he added.
The surgery was performed under general anaesthesia in the newly commissioned Mother and Child Block at AIIMS, noted Dr Bajpai. The procedure was 12-and-a-half-hours-long including the pre and post-surgical anaesthesia time.
“Steps in the surgery involved separation of the common abdominal and chest walls, division of liver tissue in a way that sufficient tissue remains for each baby, division of fused rib cage. It also involved the separation of the diaphragm, and of the pericardium,” Dr Bajpai said.
Much to the relief of their parents, Ankur and Deepika Gupta, the girls are now doing well. “We were very much worried when the surgery was being done. But thanks to god and the doctors, our girls were given a new lease of life,” said Deepika.
Comments
0 comment