DALLAS, Oct 14: Two-year-old Egyptian twins separated at the crown of their heads in a marathon operation would soon be brought out of a medically induced coma, after the boys spent their second night apart without serious medical complications, doctors said on Tuesday.
Dr James Thomas, director of critical care at the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, where Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim were separated on Sunday, said the twins would undergo brain scans. If all the signs are positive, the medical team will reduce dosage from Wednesday of the medication that put the boys into a coma after 34-hour separation surgery by 18 doctors over the weekend.
“The family is spending a lot of time at the boys’ bedside and they are smiling more freely,” Thomas told a press conference.
Thomas said the boys were in good condition after their second night apart and that there were no signs of infection, brain swelling or haemorrhage — three of several risk factors they face after the surgery.
The twins are in the coma to reduce complications in the crucial post-operative period. The medical team was discussing how to protect areas on the boys’ heads that are covered not by skull, but instead by tissue taken from their bodies that is covered by a helmet of gauze bandages.
“Things have gone really well up to now, and that is remarkable, Thomas said. “The goal is for them to live lives physically independent from one another.”
Over the next few days, doctors will try to take the boys out of their coma and remove them from ventilators, which are helping them breathe. They will check for brain activity as well as making sure their vital signs remain stable. A team of five neurosurgeons completed the most difficult and dangerous part of the operation Sunday morning — separating the shared brain material and the shared circulatory systems that feed blood to their brains.
Besides infection, doctors are on the alert for improper drainage of blood from the brains of the boys’ newly separated venous systems, leakage of spinal fluids, and blood clots.
The boys face years of reconstructive surgery to repair the places where their skulls had been fused together, doctors said, adding that if they were not separated, they would likely never walk without help.
Thomas would not speculate on chances for survival, saying that while the first two days apart were encouraging, their condition could change in a matter of hours.—Reuters
