Parasitic twins

Trichy doctors to operate on parasitic twins

Dec 26, 2013, 01.40AM IST TNN[ R Gokul ]



TRICHY: Two-day old parasitic twins have been admitted to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH) here on Wednesday. The doctors will conduct a risky surgery on them to remove their extra limbs on December 30. A surgery of this type will be the first in the history of MGMGH.

"It will be one of the rarest of rare surgeries. Their extra two legs and two arms are conjoined with chest. So, it will be a complicated surgery," said Dr D Baskaran, head of paediatric surgery department at the MGMGH.

The conjoined twins, which have the medical condition called 'parasitic pagus', were born to a poor couple Mamundy and Vijaya who are residents on the outskirts of Manapparai. This is their fifth baby.

Vijaya gave birth to the twins at a private hospital in Manapparai on Tuesday. Considering the complication, the babies were referred to the MGMGH on Wednesday. The two arms and two legs of the infants are conjoined with the chest. "We have decided to take up the rarest of the rare surgery on Monday. Such cases will happen in one in one-million babies," said Dr MA Aleem, vice-principal of KAP Viswanatham Government Medical College which is part of the MGMGH.

Dr Aleem also said that MGMGH doctors have never performed such a surgery. "We are proud to take up the challenge and our team of doctors will succeed in the task," said Dr Aleem.

The doctors said the MGMGH has all the facilities to conduct the planned surgery which will commence at 8am on Monday. "Many tests have to be conducted before the surgery. The costs cannot be calculated because we will be doing it for the first time. The doctors from our hospitals will only be part of the task because we have all the specialists as far as this surgery is concerned," said Dr Baskaran.

On the success rate of the surgery, Dr Baskaran said "The success rate is very low. Nevertheless, we will try our best to make our attempt successful."

"Medical conditions like 'parasitic pagus' is very uncommon anywhere in the world," said Dr Baskaran.