A pair of 3-month-old conjoined twins have been successfully separated from one another in the city yesterday, a success for the nation’s first computer-assisted surgery, hospital authorities said yesterday.

Doctors operate on the conjoined twins yesterday. — Ti Gong

The boys from a family in east China’s Jiangxi Province were connected to each other from chest to the belly.

They had separate heart system but shared a common liver, doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University said yesterday.

The conjoined twins were detected during prenatal checks in their home town and the mother was rushed to Shanghai for delivery three weeks before her due date.

The mother delivered the twins on September 29. The total weight of the twins was only 4.15 kilograms.

Medics had to wait for three months until it was safe to operate on the twins.

Dr Zheng Shan, the chief surgeon, said the most challenging part in the 5-hour surgery was to separate the complicated connections of blood vessels as they shared a common liver.

Doctors used a 3D model generated by a “Computer Assisted Surgery” system to guide the operation.

A 3D image of their liver was made that showed the blood vessels.

They then worked out a surgical plan for a precise separation that would cause minimum bleeding and damages. The twins only lost 30 milliliters of blood during the surgery.

Yesterday’s surgery was the hospital’s eighth successful separation of conjoined twins since 2000.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)