Doctors separate peace from patience

A pair of conjoined twins from Nigeria was successfully separated at the Narayana Hrudayalaya Women & Child Institute on Monday.

The complex surgery to separate Peace and Patience Adugbe was successfully completed by a team of 24 doctors and paramedics, headed by Dr Ashley D’Cruz, director, Narayana Hrudayalaya Women and Child Institute.

The children were moved into the operation theatre at 6:30 am. Around 7 am the anaesthetist’s team prepared the twins for surgery.

The doctors found the children to have fused liver and a shared bile duct (also known as biliary tree). They also shared a common midgut from the duodenum to the end of the small bowel.

The surgery started around 9 am with a detailed assessment of the anatomy and the intra-operative cholangiogram (imaging of the bile duct).

Doctors found that the biliary structures from both the babies were being drained by a single gall-bladder and common bile duct.

The biliary duct from disconnected from Patience and a biliary-enteric drainage (draining of the bile duct) was performed. The intestine was divided between the two children — each baby now has adequate small bowel and normal colons.

The liver was then split into two parts. The bridge of skin and tissues was finally divided and the babies were separated.

Patience was moved to another table and a second team of surgeons completed the biliary reconstructions and closed the abdomen. Simultaneously, Peace’s operation, too, was completed.

Both the babies remained stable through the operation and are now recuperating in the paediatric ICU.

Peace and Patience were born on September 9, 2009, at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria, to Emmanuel and Comfort Adugbe.

The twins were referred to Women and Child Institute of Narayana Health City by a consultant neonatologist at University of Benin Teaching Hospital.

“The kids are doing good,” Dr D’Cruz said. “They will be in the paediatric ICU for three to four days and will later be shifted to the general ward, where they will be under observation for three more weeks,” he said.

Source http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_doctors-separate-peace-from-patience_1393328