Conjoined twins shifted out of ICU after surgery

New Delhi: The two-year-old conjoined twins from Odisha, who underwent the first of a series of surgeries for separation of their heads in August, have been shifted out of the ICU. The twins, Jagannath and Balram, from Kandhamal district of Odisha, who are joined at the head have been shifted to a ward in the hospital.  Their parents are with them now, Dr A.K. Mahapatra, chief of the neuro sciences centre at AIIMS said.

A team of specialist doctors on August 28 had performed a 22-hour-long venous bypass surgery, to separate the veins shared by the infants that return blood to the heart from the brain. A team of around 40 specialists from the AIIMS’ neurosurgery, neuro-anaesthesia and plastic surgery departments and an expert from Japan were involved in the procedure.

“The twins are healthy, under normal diet and interacting well with their parents. They will undergo a few tests in the coming weeks to decide upon further surgeries. They may require one or two more operations before final separation,” Dr Deepak Gupta, professor of neurosurgery said.

The surgery for final separation of the twins, who are suffering from a very rare condition, would be conducted at the end of October, the doctor said. The twins were shifted to AIIMS on July 13.

A series of medical tests, including multiple MRIs, CT scans and angiograms, were carried out on the twins to see to what extent the veins in their brains are fused and whether surgery was feasible. Dr Gupta had earlier had said the twins suffer from a condition which afflicts one in 30 lakh children and 50 per cent of them die  either at birth or within 24 hours.

Surgery is feasible only on 25 per cent of the survivors while the rest continue to live with the condition, he had said. “Also, there is less than 20 per cent chance of survival for those who undergo this surgery. Such operations are extremely challenging,” Dr Gupta had said.