Conjoined Twins Separated After 16 Hour Surgery

After sixteen hours of surgery, two 11-month-old conjoined twins have been successfully separated.

The complex operation on Ugandan sisters Acen and Apio Akello, who were joined at the hip and spine, was performed under a team of 30 specialists at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Ohio.

The complex operation involved the separation of the girls’ spines, muscles and nerves; with each sister having two neurosurgeons working on her from 7.30am until 11.30pm.

Doctors reported that the girls, who are the hospital’s fourth successful conjoined twins surgery, were healthy but will stay at the hospital until they make a full recovery.

“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,” chief of Paediatric Surgery Dr. Gail Besner, said in a Nationwide Children’s press release.

The division of the twins’ interconnected spines was the most complex part of the operation. Imaging helped guide the neurosurgery team to visualise which nerves belonged to which sister.

“Our primary concern was preservation of the twins’ neurologic function so they may have adequate leg movement and bowel and bladder function once separated,” Jeffrey R. Leonard, MD, chief of neurosurgery at Nationwide Children’s, explained in a Huffington Post report.

After their separation, each twin was moved to a different table where reconstruction took place. The girls’ mother, Ester, who has limited English, was filled with gratitude.

The girls will remain at the hospital to recover and get ready for their next surgery where their colostomies will be removed, which they have had since just after their birth.

“The girls will continue to receive treatment at this time, and I can’t wait to watch them grow. My hope is that they will be able to sit up on their own, walk and play like any other child,” Dr. Besner said.

Conjoined twins account for one of every 200,000 live births, according to University of Maryland Medical Center figures.  Surgical separation of conjoined twins remains relatively rare, with a high percentage – between 40 and 60 percent being stillborn.

Since 1950, at least one twin has survived separation about 75 percent of the time.