1-year-old conjoined twins separated after 12-hr surgery at AIIMS

The family from Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly was referred to AIIMS to ensure that they received a proper treatment plan for the girls’ birth and eventual separation

Conjoined twins Riddhi and Siddhi, who were born last year and were joined from the chest and stomach, were successfully separated in a surgery that lasted over 12 hours at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, doctors said on Wednesday.

The twin girls, Riddhi and Siddhi, were separated on June 8 after a 12.5 hour-long surgery at AIIMS-Delhi. (PTI)

Minu Bajpai, head of the department of paediatric surgery at AIIMS, said the twins were diagnosed as ‘thoraco-omphalopagus conjoined twins’ in the fourth month of pregnancy, following which the family, originally from Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly, was referred to AIIMS to ensure that a they received a proper treatment plan for the girls’ birth and eventual separation.

“The two children were born last year on July 7 and were in the ICU (intensive care unit) for five months. They were separated on June 8 after a 12.5 hour-long surgery,” the hospital said in a statement released on Wednesday.

The two were operated on when they were just 11 months old — enough to tolerate the trauma of surgery, Prabudh Goel, additional professor, department of paediatric surgery, said.

“The anomaly was peculiar, with fused rib cages, livers, partially common diaphragms, and fused pericardium. Both hearts were very close to each other, almost touching and beating in contact. The pericardium was partially fused,” Goel said.

Doctors said that while the actual surgery went on for nearly nine hours, it took another 3.5 hours for pre- and post-surgery anaesthesia.

“The steps in the surgery involved the separation of the common abdominal and chest walls, division of liver tissue in a way that sufficient tissue remained for each baby, and a division of fused rib cage. It also involved separation of the diaphragm, and of pericardium,” Dr Bajpai said.

Prosthetic tissues and grafts were also kept available in the possibility of the infants not having enough native tissues to complete the repair successfully, he said.

After the surgery, the twins celebrated their first birthday at the hospital, doctors said.

This is not the first such successful surgery at AIIMS — in 2017, doctors at the institute successfully separated Jagannath and Balaram from Odisha, who were craniopagus twins (fused at the cranium).