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R/£ Separated conjoined twins 'doing great'
June 16, 2006 Edition 1
LOS ANGELES: A medical team worked through the night to rebuild the bodies of conjoined twins who were successfully separated after a day-long operation.
Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros were transferred to side-by-side beds in an intensive care unit after their surgeries were completed yesterday, said Children's Hospital Los Angeles spokeswoman Janet Dotson.
"The girls are doing great," she said.
The 10-month-old twins were born facing each other, joined from the lower chest to the pelvis.
They were fused in several places, including the liver and genitals, they shared a large intestine, and Regina was born with one kidney.
During the operation, doctors made an incision at the breastbone and then divided the internal organs.
On Wednesday, the young twins spent their first moments apart, when one was wheeled to another room so that plastic surgeons could begin the reconstruction work.
Wednesday's surgery was considered more complex because it involved more organs.
Despite the risks, doctors said they expected a successful operation.
Conjoined twins occur when a single fertilised egg fails to divide completely. It is estimated that a few hundred pairs of conjoined twins are born globally each year. In the US, they occur in one in every 200 000 live births.
The way that Regina and Renata were fused made them a rare type of conjoined twins, occurring in about 10% of cases.
The twins were born in Los Angeles on August 2 2005, to Mexican parents who were visiting relatives in the United States. - Sapa-AP
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