CONJOINED TWINS SEPARATED IN BRAZIL

A set of conjoined twins that was born with a fused head and brains have been separated successfully. The twins, Bernardo and Arthur Lima were born in Brazil with a fused head and brains.

The successful separation operation has been hailed as the most complex surgery of its kind as virtual reality technology was used.

For the first time since their birth, the two brothers can now look each other in the face. The marathon 27-hour operation was part of a set of nine operations to separate them.

Euronews reports that the twins were born in 2018 in the state of Roraima, northern Brazil, as craniopagus twins – an extremely rare condition in which the siblings are fused at the cranium – and have spent most of their lives in a hospital in Rio de Janeiro.

After the separation, the boys’ mother Adriely Lima, said that they had “been living in the hospital for four years”.

According to London-based charity Gemini Untwined, who helped out with the procedure, this separation was “the most challenging and complex separation to date” since the boys shared several vital blood vessels.

Neurosurgeon Gabriel Mufarrej of the Paulo Niemeyer State Brain Institute in Rio shared the charity’s sentiment.

“The twins had the most serious and difficult version of the condition, with the highest risk of death for both. It was without a doubt the most complex surgery of my career. At the beginning, nobody thought they would survive. It is already historic that both of them could be saved.”

Image credit: Central Fife Times