Successfully separated twins sticking to the spine

Doctors at the Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee (USA) successfully surgically removed the 8-month-old twins who were spinal.

>>>Successfully separated conjoined twins

Joshua and Jacob Spates were born by surgery in January 2011. The twins were spinal and their chances of survival were very small. However, doctors from Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Tennessee successfully separated the spine of these 8-month-old twins after 13 hours of surgery.

Joshua and Jacob Spates were conjoined.

The surgery was conducted on August 29 last. Currently, Joshua and Jacob Spates were able to see each other directly. Doctors say that Jacob still needs special care and has to undergo some more surgeries, while little Joshua is almost completely healthy and can be discharged soon.

'Joshua recovered very well after surgery. We hope the boy will soon have a normal life like the other children, ' said Dr. Max Langham, a member of the surgical team for the twins. 'However, Jacob has some cardiovascular problems and needs special treatment. Hope everything will go well. '

With the success of this surgery, doctors hope to gain more experience to raise the success rate in surgeries that separate the next conjoined twins.

The case of conjoined twins is extremely rare, at a rate of 1 / 200,000 twins. Only one-third of conjoined twins live more than a day. So far, only a few dozen twins conjoined on the body in the world have been successfully separated. 15% of these cases are spinally attached as twins Jacob and Joshua.