US doctors separate conjoined twins in marathon surgery
A medical team has worked through the night to rebuild the bodies of conjoined twins who were successfully separated after a day-long operation in Los Angeles.
Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros were transferred early today to side-by-side beds in an intensive care unit after their surgeries were completed, said Childrens Hospital Los Angeles spokeswoman Janet Dotson.
“The girls are doing great,” she said.
Ten-month-old Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros were born facing each other, joined from the lower chest to the pelvis. They were fused in several places, including the liver and genitals, they shared a large intestine, and Regina was born with one kidney.
During the operation, doctors made an incision at the breastbone and then divided the internal organs.
Late yesterday, the young twins spent their first moments apart, when one was wheeled to another room so plastic surgeons could begin the reconstruction work.
Several doctors on the 80-person medical team also took part in the 2003 separation of conjoined twins from a set of triplets at the hospital. Yesterday’s surgery was considered more complex because it involved more organs.
Despite the risks, doctors said they expected a successful operation.
“Everything has been going impeccably, as one could possibly imagine,” surgical director Dr Henri Ford said several hours into the surgery.
Conjoined twins occur when a single fertilised egg fails to divide completely. It is estimated that a few hundred pairs of conjoined twins are born globally each year. In the US, they occur one in every 200,000 live births.
The way that Regina and Renata were fused makes them a rare type of conjoined twins, occurring in about 10% of cases.
The twins were born in Los Angeles on August 2, 2005, to Mexican parents who were visiting relatives in the United States. The girls’ mother, 23-year-old Sonia, said she did not realize she was carrying conjoined twins until she was admitted to hospital with an infection.
The couple extended their tourist visa so that the twins could receive medical care.
The girls were transferred to Childrens Hospital a day after their birth where they underwent tests in preparation for the separation surgery.
Doctors implanted inflatable balloons under their skin so that it could expand to cover the surgical wounds after the operation.
Childrens Hospital declined to reveal the operation’s cost, which will be covered by a state health programme.
The hospital has previously performed five conjoined twin operations since 1966 including three cases in which both twins survived.
