A team of Zambian surgeons on Friday successfully separated seven-month-old conjoined twins, a first of its kind in the nation.
The surgery, performed on the conjoined twins Mapalo and Bupe was done at the Women and New Born hospital in Lusaka, led by a team of 30 health practitioners from the University Teaching Hospital(UTH), local online site, Lusaka Times said.
UPDATE: A TEAM of 30 surgeons, nurses and theatre staff, at the Women and New Born Hospital in Lusaka, are separating seven-month-old conjoined twins with a shared liver. (Picture by Kachinga Sichizya) pic.twitter.com/DUya8cPuBH
— Mwebantu (@Mwebantu) February 2, 2018
“A lot of progress has been made, in fact we have made great progress. The twins have been separated. They were separated at exactly 16:58 hours (Local time),” said Dr Maureen Chisembele, UTH senior medical superintendent for Women and New Born Hospital.
“However, there is still a lot to be done in terms of closing up the wounds and we anticipate that the surgery will continue for an hour and a half to two hours.” she said.
Lead surgeon Bruce Vulani had indicated in September 2017 that the twins, who at the time were just 3 months old, could undergo the surgery after 6 months. This was in order to allow for more skin to grow on their bellies where they were joined.
According to Dr Disembele, the twins, who were identified as omphalapogus twins, a rare kind of birth in Zambia where the major cause is incomplete division of one fertilized ovum, were not sharing major tissues such as live and intestines.
