Ericana and Eluidi with their Mother Grace
Mwakyusa before separation surgery
The conjoined Tanzanian
twin boys, Ericana and Eluidi Mwakyusa, who were referred to Apollo Children
Hospital in Chennai, India for surgery by Ministry of Health and Social
Welfare, Tanzania on June, 2013, now sleep in separate hospital beds in the
Pediatric Critical Care Unit of Apollo Hospital’s Vanagaram facility after
successful major separation surgery which was done on 16th December, 2013.
They are able to do so
after nine months, thanks to the efforts of 20 surgeons and an equal number of
hospital staffs of Apollo hospital Chennai who made this happened.
These
types of Conjoined twins, though rarely encountered, are seen in one in 200,000
deliveries. However, more than 60% of them are stillborn while 35% of the
remaining die within a few days or months of birth due to various causes.
Conjoined twins can be joined at the chest, abdomen, back, buttock and head.
Fusion at the buttocks (Pygopagus) is very rare and accounts for less than 17%
of all conjoined twins.
Live
born Pygopagus twins are usually female in sex while male pygopagus twins are
extremely rare. Till now in medical literature, only 30 sets of Pygopagus twins
have been reported out of which 26 were female and only four were male.
The nine-month-old
pygopagus twins boy (conjoined at the end of the spine), were born at Kasumulu
in Kyela, Mbeya Region. The twins’ spines were fused at the base, and they
shared a single anus and rectum.
The twins were referred to
Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, which in turn sought help from
the Government through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW), which
then the MOHSW, referred the twins to
Apollo Children’s hospital in Chennai India for further evaluation and
management.
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