Odisha Siamese twins separated at AIIMS, remain in critical condition

New Delhi: The condition of the conjoined twins Jaga and Baliya from Odisha was 'critical' after a marathon surgery to separate them by a team of doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here on Thursday, a senior doctor of the hospital informed. The 28-month-old twins, who were joined from their heads, were successfully separated after an 18-hour operation which started at 9 am on Wednesday and ended at 3 am on Thursday, he said.

According AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, "The boys are still in critical condition and are on ventilator support in the ICU but are gradually coming out of the anesthesia effect. The next few days will be very critical."

"The operation was a huge team effort and I am very happy that our team at AIIMS were able to successfully meet the challenge, because the feat involves not only separating the conjoined boys but also the subsequent recovery process," he explained.

Guleria added, "There was no skin on top of the head; so skin grafting was required. You have to reconstruct many parts of the skull which are absent in such cases when the twins are fused. Hence, there was no skull, no skin in that area which had to be reconstructed as part of a plastic surgery process. As of now, we have managed to separate the twins and they are now in the ICU. We are observing them very closely for their recovery… to monitor their subsequent improvement."

Giving a brief idea of the complexity of the surgery, AIIMS Professor of Neurosurgery Dr Ashok Mohapatra said, "Apart from a team of 40 doctors, many nurses and technicians, too, were involved in it."

"The basic problem is that such a challenge has never been faced before. During the previous surgery of this type, it was the separation of just 50 per cent. During this final separation process, we had to go 360 degrees. Besides, there were problems of the heart, problems of the kidney and massive blood transfusion because we lost around three and a half litres of blood. Our blood bank was all alert and till the end of the operation, three bottles of blood were still stored there for the purpose," Dr Mohapatra added.