40 AIIMS doctors begin surgery to separate conjoined twins joined at head

Doctors at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on Monday for the first time attempted to seperate conjoined twins Jaga-Balia of Odisha's Kandhamal district. The surgery, which started around 9 am, was still on.

The surgery will span over a period of 50 hours. It will be conducted in two phases. Dr K. Taki Jawa, a Japanese physician, is leading the team of doctors to separate the conjoined twins.

It is learnt that around 40 doctors, including a team of experts from Japan, are engaged in the surgery. The 28-month-old twins belong to Milipada village of Kandhamal district were shifted to AIIMS on July 13 after a series of media reports prompted the state government to intervene.

In this case of the conjoined twins, the operation is more complicated because they share veins that return blood to the heart from the brain.

Meanwhile, the Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik sanctioned Rs 1 crore from the CM's Relief Fund for the surgery on the conjoined twins.

Since 1952, only about 50 attempts have been made to separate such twins across the world, with the success rate below 25%.

OneIndia News