Surgeons at the Shanghai Children's Medical Center (SCMC)announced Tuesday the separation of two three-month-old conjoined twins was successful and both babies are in a stable condition.

They are still under medical treatment in an ICU (intensive care unit) ward after the separation last Thursday.

Conjoined cases are quite rare in the world -- one occurs among every 100,000 surviving newborns. About 29 percent of conjoined babies are connected in their chests and abdomens. Generally, surgeons only save one of the two as survival rate after separation is very low.

The conjoined case of the two girls born in Xuzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, is even more complicated as they were joined in the chest and abdomen -- from under the neck to their navels. Their two hearts were in the same pericardium and they shared one liver. One baby suffers from a heart deformity.

Important organs

"We took great risk to save both babies because they shared several important organs. It took more than 50 medical staff seven hours to perform the complicated surgery," said Liu Jingfen, president of SCMC, during a news briefing with local media.

A serious lung infection in the smaller baby caused dysfunction of her heart and kidneys.

Surgeons first cut the joined liver into two parts, leaving each part with complete vessels and a biliary tract.

Then the babies' shared pericardium was cut to separate the two hearts.

Surgeons

Surgeons then took another two hours to repair damage in their chests and abdomens.

"We applied a titanium stand into the babies' chests, as there are no ribs to protect their organs," said Chen Qiming, executive director of SCMC's Surgical Department.

Due to the lack of large areas of skin, surgeons applied piglet skin to the two babies, which they said will be replaced by the baby's own skin in the future.

Meanwhile, surgeons performed another surgery for the congenitally deformed heart of the smaller baby.

"We will conduct several more surgeries in the next three months," said Liu.

The surgery is the fifth of its kind performed in Shanghai.

"The surgery is a marvelous example of different technologies and skills performed ...in a children's hospital, and it's always a team effort," commented Dr Louis Cooper, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics who visited SCMC recently.

(China Daily September 15, 2004)