A pair of twins who were joined at their heads were successfully separated with the help of virtual reality.
The surgery of little Bernardo and Arthur Lima, 3 years old, had place in Rio de Janeiro, with the address at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
For months, the surgical teams tested different types of techniques using projections of the twins in virtual reality , which were based on CT scans and MRIs.
The surgeon Noor ul Owase Jeelani described it as “something from the space age”.
Bernardo and Arthur’s is one of the most complex separation processes ever completed, according to the foundation that financed the intervention, Gemini Untwined. Jeelani opened the foundation in 2018.
Said that for the first time, a group of surgeons from separate countries used headsets and operated together in the same “virtual reality room”.
The conjoined twins underwent 7 surgeries: the last one required more than 15 hours of surgery and a team of more than 100 healthcare professionals.
“Issue like living on Mars”
Referring to the reality aspect virtual surgery, Jeelanie told the PA news agency: “It’s wonderful. It’s really cool to see the anatomy and do the surgery before putting the kids in any kind of risk”.
“You can imagine how reassuring this is for the surgeons”.
“Of Somehow, these operations are considered the most difficult of our times, and having done it in virtual reality is like living on Mars.”
He said that the anatomy of the little ones had become complicated by the growth of scar tissue after previous failed attempts to separate them, and that he was “really apprehensive” about the complicated surgery.
Jeelani said that he was “absolutely destroyed” after the surgery of hours, during which only took 4 breaks of minutes to eat and drink water, but it had been “wonderful” to see the whole family excited afterwards.
He added that, as in all cases of conjoined twins, the children’s blood pressures and heart rates “shot up”, until they met 4 days later and touched hands.
The twins were recovering well in the hospital and will receive six months of rehabilitation.
(Photo: PA MEDIA )
A change of life
This is the sixth surgery that Jeelani has done with Gemini Untwined, after having operated on twins in Pakistan, Sudan, Israel and Turkey.
He led the procedure together with Dr. Gabriel Mufarrej, head of pediatric surgery at the Paulo Niemeyer State Brain Institute, in Brazil.
Mufarrej said the hospital where he works has been taking care of the boys for two to years and a half He added that the separation will change their lives.
“Since they arrived in Rio two and a half years ago from their home in the Roraima region, the boys’ parents have become part of the family here in the hospital. We are delighted that the surgery went so well”.
Bernardo and Arthur, almost four years old, are the oldest craniopagus twins – that is, twins with fused brains – to be separated.
Depending on the organization, one of each 60, births result in conjoined twins and only 5% of them are craniopagus.
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