Doctors separate conjoined twins with help of 3D printer

A team of ten doctors from three different departments at the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai conducted the operation.

The girls had been joined at the hip and lower spine. They mostly had separate digestive systems but shared a lower bowel.

Doctors prepared for the five-hour operation by using 3D printing technology to make models for a virtual operation. The hospital sent data from the twins CT and MRI examinations to a 3D printing company to build two models of the conjoined body parts.

Chief surgeon and paediatric surgery expert Zheng Shan told state media that the models helped the team to better plan for the procedure. "With the 3-D model, we could better understand the actual anatomical structure of the twin girls' conjoined parts. And it helped us to decide on a more precise starting point on the body,” Mr Zheng said.

It is the first time that 3D printing technology was used for this kind of surgery in China.

The twins were born on March 17 in Ganzhou in Jiangxi province in south east China. Their condition was only detected at birth as prenatal examinations had only shown that they were twins.

They were brought to the Children’s Hospital at Fudan University which has experience in this type of surgery. Doctors at the hospital have carried out six other separations of conjoined twins in the last 15 years.

Photos carried in state media showed the separated twins recovering in ICU in two separate beds, being cared for by medical staff.

While the operation was successful, doctors said that it will take three days for the girls to be considered out of danger.

Conjoined twins are rare with an incidence of one in almost 200,000 births worldwide.

(telegraph.co.uk)