Federal Government Praised the National Hospital for successfully separating conjoined twins •

First of such accomplishment in Nigeria’s history The Federal Government on Tuesday hailed the National Hospital, Abuja, for successfully separating a set of conjoined twins.

 The twins, both girls – Goodness and Mercy – were attached at the chest and abdominal regions. Health Minister Dr. Osagie Ehanire conveyed the government’s appreciation to the team of surgeons that performed the historical medical feat. The successful surgery makes the hospital the first in country to carry out such complicated separation.

 The “home-grown surgical care” was said to be so intricate that one liver had to be shared between the twins while aspects of the ribs that were fused had to be separated. Luckily, the twins have their own separate hearts, although enclosed in one pericardium. The surgeons said they had to cut the sacs and fuse it for each one. The surgical team was all Nigerian with 78 workers directly involved in the preparation and surgery, which took about 12 hours. Before this surgery, most previous conjoined twins were joined at the stomach region only without the need to separate the liver, chest region or the heart.

 Addressing reporters yesterday in Abuja, Dr. Ehanire said: “The two lovely children, who were born in Keffi, the Nasarawa State capital, conjoined face-to-face at the chest and abdomen. They were referred to the National Hospital, Abuja, 16 months ago. The children had to first be nurtured to stable health by a team of neonatologists, as medical imaging experts conducted tests and studies to determine what and how internal organs were shared or connected between them. “In a remarkable operation that followed very detailed planning and preparation, a mixed team of paediatric, plastic and cardiothoracic surgeons, led by Prof. Emmanuel Ameh, performed the operation to separate the twins. It was the first successful operation of this type at this hospital and it marks a bold venture into the realm of advanced surgery.




 “The successful outcome of this surgery is thanks to the availability of top experts at National Hospital, Abuja, their dedication to the profession, the careful planning, the excellent teamwork and administrative support they received.” Twins are conjoined in the womb when an embryo fails to divide completely during formation. Such a condition can present complex and delicate challenges to teams attempting separation, especially when critical internal organs, like the liver, heart and intestines, are shared or connected. Explaining how his team deployed their expertise to separate the liver shared by the twins, the team leader for surgery and Chief Consultant and Paediatric Surgeon, Prof Ameh said: “Yes, the liver bleeds a lot. In sharing the liver, the fact is that as human beings, we don’t need a whole liver. When we carry out liver transplant, we don’t transplant the whole liver; we only take a small part of it. “Every human being can survive with one-third of the actual liver size. For the twins, the size of the single liver they had was actually the size of two livers joined together. In separating it, we had very advanced equipment that helped us to separate it very quickly without losing much blood.