One-day-old conjoined twins were separated in a surgery performed at King George Hospital here on Saturday. This was for the first time that such a surgery was performed in the more than 150-year-old history of the institution.
While one baby was fully formed, the other was not so. The twins were born to Varalakshmi of Kondakarla Aaava of Anakapalle mandal. Caesarian was performed on Friday morning on her and the surgery to separate the twins was conducted on Saturday morning, Chief of Gynaecology and Deputy Superintendent of KGH P. P. Srininvasa Murthy said. The surgery was performed by a team of doctors consisting of Chief of Paediatric Surgery K.V. Janardhana Rao, Associate Professor K. Kameswari and Assistant Professor L. Dasaradha Rao, and Chief Anaesthetist D. Vijaya Kumar Rao, Assistant Professors K. Kurmanath and T. Suryanarayana. It lasted two-and-a-half hours. Explaining the surgery, Dr. Janardhana Rao said there were some peculiarities in this case. The conjoined twins are attached to each other normally at one place but in this case, they were joined at two places, at the head and abdomen, though they were joined at the skin level. “It is a parasite twin and needed to be removed to save the other twin”, he said anaesthesia was given using a different gas and through glottis, unlike the usual way of through laryngeal airway.
