HCM City's hospital successes in separating twins with attached liver

ABO/NDO – Doctors at the Ho Chi Minh City-based Children's Hospital 1 have successfully separated 1.5-month twin girls who were conjoined in the liver.

The two babies are in extensive care after the surgery. (Photo: NDO).

Doctor Dao Trung Hieu, the deputy director of the hospital, informed Nhan Dan Newspaper correspondent in HCM City on the success on October 2.

The test results showed that the two babies had a piece of liver sticking together with connecting blood vessels. Apart from the adhesion of the liver, defects in their digestive systems and hearts have not been detected.

Hieu said that the twins are very small, so the liver is very fragile and their liver membrane is also not as tough as with older ones. "If the liver breaks, bleeding will be difficult to stop, so surgical crews must be very careful in cutting the liver and controlling bleeding and blood vessels connecting the two sides," doctor Hieu shared.

The operation, which involved 18 doctors, started at 8 am on Wednesday as the two babies were undergoing anesthesia, which was longer than expected as one baby was weaker than the other.

At 10 am, the surgical team officially slit the first knife to separate the two bodies. The surgery went as smoothly as originally planned and the two babies were successfully separated at 11:15 am.

Earlier, their mother (living in Quang Nam Province) during antenatal diagnosis at Tu Du Hospital in HCM City discovered that her twin girls were attached at the tummy, from the breastbone down.

The twins have been under close supervision by Tu Du and Children's Hospital 1 Hospitals. Immediately after undergoing C-section at Tu Du Hospital, the two children were taken to Children's Hospital 1 to nurture and conduct separate surgery.

(Source: NDO)