Pediatric experts discuss separating conjoined twins in HCMC

Doctors at the Pediatric Hospital No.1 in Ho Chi Minh City are doubtful that the conjoined twins born in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang last Wednesday can be separated as the success rate of their operation seemed too low.

Doctors at the Pediatric Hospital No.1 in Ho Chi Minh City are doubtful that the conjoined twins born in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang last Wednesday can be separated as the success rate of their operation seemed too low.

The conjoined twins in the Pediatric Hospital No.1 in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: SGGP)
The conjoined twins in the Pediatric Hospital No.1 in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: SGGP)

Doctors said only if any complication arose for one of the 3.5-kilogram newborn twins, who were first thought to be one baby with two heads, they would struggle to save the healthier of the two twins.

But if the twins show the adaptability to live, doctors will let them live peacefully together.

Doctors checked the internal organs of the twins on Monday and Dr. Dao Trung Hieu, the hospital’s deputy director, said that the twins are actually two baby girls, with two separate spinal columns, two gullets and two stomachs.

The twin baby girls have complex internal organs as they share the same organs from the digestive system till the genitals.

They have two hearts which are connected, having only one wall of tissue separating the right and left heart auricles. They share the same liver but have two gallbladders, two kidneys, one bladder and one sex organ. Their kidneys seem to function well as they are urinating normally.
 
Doctors were conducting a CT scan to decide which heart was pumping blood in their bodies. Though their two livers were functioning well and they were breathing normally, they suffered from pulmonary artery stenosis.

Pediatrician experts in the hospital will again sit down today to discuss their case and how to proceed further.

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