Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday commended the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) medical personnel for successful separation of conjoined twins in a complex surgery which took more than seven hours.
She said that the step was crucial in implementing the government plan of enhancing specialised healthcare in the country.
“I pray for quick recovery for the children, Neema and Rehema,” the Head of State said this through her official Twitter account @SuluhuSamia.
A total of 31 specialists participated in the surgery on Friday, which involved separating some of the vital organs that the twins shared, including chest bones as well as liver, heart sack, and arteries.
After the procedure, MNH paediatric surgeon Dr Zaitun Bokhary noted that the length of time required for the operation was due to the doctors’ careful separation of the liver from other important organs.
“The main task and complexity was on the separation of the liver which was almost used by the two, but also the heart sack which had to make the surgery successful,” she said.
According to Dr Bokhary, the surgery started at around 9: am and ended at around 3: pm involving experts such as Radiologists, anaesthetist’s haematologists, plastic surgeons among others.
Out of the 31 specialists, 26 were Tanzanians while the remaining five were foreigners.
“Every time is a learning time for medical doctors, but we had a liver specialist who has done a great job on separating the organ in collaboration with other specialists,” she said.
Prof Martin Corbally, a liver specialist from Bahrain said the surgery was complex, saying it has been successful through the help of other specialists who were part of the process.
He said the twins will now be in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for a couple of days while experts follow their progress.
“I must admit that it was a complex surgery because you need to have an understanding of the anatomy as the anatomy inside can be distorted and not predictable, things that you think can be in the same place are not in the same place so the complexity was a shared liver and other sensitive organs inside,” he said.
MNH announced earlier this week that it will conduct surgery on the twins from Mwabayande village at Mwigwa Ward in Maswa District, Simiyu region who were born with 4.9 kilogrammes on September 21, and shared to some extent the liver and a bone in the chest.
Medical team at MNH examined the twins since they arrived at the hospital from Bugando Referral hospital in Mwanza where they were given referral and saw to it that it was an issue that the hospital could handle.
They were brought to MNH on 12 November last year weighing 7 kilogrammes and now they are weighing 13.3 kilogrammes.
This is the third time that such a surgery is carried out in the nation; the first was in 1994, and the second in 2018 involved two boys who are now three years and nine months old and live in Kisarawe District, Coast Region.This is another milestone achievement for the country’s main referral hospital after several other successful establishments of key services in the past five years.
MNH has in recent years enhanced its capacity to provide major services whereby the first was Cochlear implant, radiology intervention, kidney transplant and Bone Marrow transplants.
The hospital first launched kidney transplant services and later in the year sent its experts for training on conducting liver transplants.
The kidney transplant was the second achievement in a row by the hospital after a successful cochlear implant surgery in June 2017.
The move reduces costs of liver transplant by 50-per cent. One successful transplant costs about 100 million in India which is deemed as the cheapest.
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