In Senegal, news caused a sensation: the successful separation of two Siamese twin sisters. This surgical intervention, successfully carried out by the teams of the Albert Royer national children’s hospital, is a rare and perilous feat. The two little girls were born with a rare malformation, being united by the liver and the sternum.
It was during pregnancy, at four months, that the mother of the twins discovered this malformation. After a scheduled caesarean section on September 4, 2022, the babies were kept under surveillance until the age of eleven months, when the separation procedure was successfully performed. This operation, which lasted an hour and twenty, required great expertise from the surgeons.
Gabriel Ngom, head of the pediatric surgery department at the Albert Royer hospital center, explains the specifics of the intervention: “The second organ that was common to these twins was the liver, the largest organ in the body which has several functions. This requires, for its separation, that we take into account its importance on the functioning of the human being. It was necessary to give, to each Siamese, a normal liver with all its attributes”.
After the operation, the twins were placed in the intensive care unit for two days, then benefited from daily post-operative monitoring. Ndeye Aby Ndoye, member of the surgical team, is delighted with their development: “The twins are doing well. In any case, they are flourishing for the moment. They integrate the fact of being separate, autonomous. They each play for their part, they feed themselves. There are no, locally, on the surgical level in any case, any serious complications”.
This surgery was paid for by the state, and cost more than 1.3 million CFA francs. It represents a major advance in the medical field in Senegal, where only two other Siamese separations had already been carried out, in 2003 and 2018.
This medical achievement testifies to the tremendous progress of medicine and technology, and offers new perspectives of hope for families faced with such situations. He also highlights the expertise and dedication of the medical teams at the Albert Royer National Children’s Hospital, which made this delicate operation a success