The 3rd Successful Surgery of Separating Face-to-face Conjoined twins in Guangzh
2010-04-09 Source：South net
Intern correspondent Feng Haiyong South net reports (reporter Wang Daobin, intern reporter Feng Guangqiang, Ma Jun and Zhang Xixiao) Face-to-face conjoined twin boys Feng Xiaofeng A and B who had been sent to Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center from Yanbu hospital in Nanhai one day after being born (referring to our Guangzhou edition on March 21st) got separated successfully yesterday. With the conjoined part as large as 30×10cm got separated, the liver and the pericardium the one-month-old babies had shared also got separated successfully. "Now the baby A is in a much better health condition and there’s hope for the congenital heart disease to recover. But the baby B has relative risk for the myocardial injury spleen deficiency syndrome. It is estimated that the cardiac reoperation depends on a third surgery. Considering the kids’ family poverty, further treatment will be paid by channels like the New Hope fund established by the hospital and the city Youth League Committee." Said Xia Huimin, director of the Women and Children’s Medical Center. Face-to-face conjoined brothers finally got separated six hours later The surgeon Yu Jiakang, director for department of pediatric surgery introduced that Feng Xiaofeng A and B was just only 5.2 kilograms when born and 5.41 kilograms at present when they were already one month old." The perimeter of the conjoined part was as long as 30 cm, and their chest and liver were connected too. The area of conjoined liver was as large as 7.5 x 5.5 cm. What’s more, the conjoined babies shared one pericardium for two hearts." At 10 o 'clock in the morning yesterday, the conjoined babies were sent into the operation room. The doctors cut the conjoined liver and pericardium carefully with microwave knives. After great efforts for six hours, the babies finally got separated successfully after being conjoined face-to-face for more than one month. "We had to use microwave knives to cut bit by bit and tried our best to reduce blood, especially when cutting the conjoined liver." Yu Jiakang introduced that the older brother A has an optimistic condition, and there’s hope for his congenital heart disease to recover. But the younger brother made the doctors worried. "The younger brother has congenital heart disease. The single atrium with single ventricle made it hard for him to breathe. Furthermore, he has myocardial injury spleen deficiency syndrome." According to Professor Zhou Xiaoguang at the department of neonatology, they would have another three surgeries of heart repairing on B in two years. "We need to prevent infection now; otherwise the immune function may be affected in future." The hospital will undertake the follow-up treatment for B The conjoined babies’ parents come from Sichuan and they have been working in Foshan city for more than ten years. The conjoined babies are their second birth. It is known that they both have twins in the clans. The high cost for Feng Xiaofeng A and B had made the couple quite helpless. The father Wu Weijiang said that he works as a porter and his wife tailor, neither earning much. They still have a four-year-old child at home too. "Thanks for the kind-hearted doctors and they treated our babies for free." The mother said that she only had one check in pregnancy and knew they were twins. She didn’t find anything unusual until the check one day before the delivery. It made Wu Weijiang sadder after the children were born. "We even thought of giving up the children. But we finally followed the hospital and sent the babies to the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center." With the babies separated successfully and the operation costs exempted, the couple finally got relieved. The felt more than appreciated to the hospital. "We haven’t got the right names for the babies yet." They expressed that they would take good care of the twin sons and try their best for the babies to live happily. History Three similar successful operations in the same hospital According to the introduction, there’s a very low rate for newly born babies to be conjoined, about one in every 5 million to 20 million, and such abnormality can be found with regular prenatal examinations. Yu Shikang introduces that this has been the third such operation in this hospital. "We had one separating the conjoined hips in the 1980s and the babies have grown up. We had another successful operation of separating abandoned conjoined boys last year too. Those boys also had connected chest, but the connected part was not so large as this one and that operation was relatively easier." |
