A pair of 13-month-old conjoined twins who were separated on July 15 is recuperating at the City Children’s Hospital in HCM City (Photo courtesy of the hospital’s doctor)HCM
City (VNS/VNA) – The 13-month-old who had surgery to
separate them on July 15 at the in Ho Chi Minh City no
longer have fever and they are showing signs of good recovery.
Doctors
are closely monitoring their respiration, digestion and other functions. They
are getting the best care to ensure they are in optimal health for more
surgeries.
They
plan to perform a secondary surgery to reconstruct the babies’ digestive and
urinary tracts after three months.
Dr
Truong Quang Dinh, the hospital’s director, said the doctors had worked closely
with Hung Vuong Hospital, where the twins were born in June 2019, to prepare
for the surgery to separate them by 93 doctors and nurses from leading city
hospitals such as Children’s Hospitals 1 and 2 and .
Dinh
said many more things like physical rehabilitation are needed for the babies.
Speaking
at a press meeting after the surgery, Prof Tran Dong A, 79, who headed the team
of surgeons that did the first ever surgery in Vietnam to separate conjoined
twins in 1988 and was a consultant for the surgery this month, said it was a
big challenge for doctors because the babies were joined at the pelvis and
all four lower limbs were present and at right angles to the common torso.
The
global rate of conjoined twins is 1 per 200,000 live births, and only 6 percent
are classified as ischiopagus tetrapus conjoined
twins, or joined at the pelvis.
“Thirty
two years ago we successfully performed the surgery to separate the
twins who were also joined at the pelvis like the 13 month-old twins,
despite a shortage of materials such as antibiotics and sutures.
“We
received assistance from Japan.”
The
twins, Nguyen Viet and Nguyen Duc of Kon Tum had had the surgery when they were
six years old. Viet had cerebral palsy, was in a coma and his life was under
threat. If he died, Duc could also die, and so the surgery had to be done to
separate and save Duc.
Viet
might also have a chance to survive then. The surgery lasted 15
hours.
Duc
grew up into a healthy adult and got married while, sadly, Viet remained in a
vegetative state for 19 years before passing away.
Doctors
of Vietnam have so far performed 11 surgeries to separate conjoined twins.
Fifty
doctors and nurses at , for instance,
performed a 10-hour surgery to separate a 10-month-old pair joined at the
abdomen, chest, liver, duodenum, and small intestine in 2003.
Experts
had warned of risks but the outcome exceeded expectations.
The
twins have grown up healthy and are preparing to sit the upcoming high school
graduation examination./.
Source: VietnamPlus
