Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Cranial Separations of Twins
Aired October 20, 2003 - 11:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's the miracle of medicine. Doctors here in the U.S. are operating on another set of conjoined twins, the first of several surgeries taking place New York right now for a pair of 18-month-old Filipino boys. The operation comes a week after the operation of conjoined Egyptian twins in Dallas.
CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen on set with us to talk us to more about this. A lot of different separations going on, gosh, even in the past year, let's talk about this.
(CROSSTALK)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: ... heard about them and now there's been many. And we'll talk about what they all learned from one other.
Let's first talk about Carl and Clarence Aguirre, Filipinos, as Kyra mentioned, who are being separated at the Children's Hospital in Montefiore in New York City. These two boys, what they've done this morning with them is trying to stretch the scalp and the skin so that when they are separated a couple of months from now they'll be able to take their skin and cover up that wound. That's one of the three things they're trying to do.
The second one is a craniotomy. They actually make a little window in the skull so they can get a better picture of the vessels look like inside.
And thirdly, if the boys are doing OK in the course of the operation, they hope to start the process of tying off some of these veins that they share. In other words, separating them off and putting them back -- making them separate so that the boys don't have blood flow going from one to the other.
But a woman from the hospital said we might not be able to get to that. It all depends how they're doing under anesthesia. But those are the three things they're trying to do this morning.
PHILLIPS: Is it the same type of separation as the Egyptian twins went through just last week?
COHEN: No, this one will be a little bit different. They've done this preliminary surgery today. They'll do three to five more procedures before they do the big one a couple of months from now to finally separate two boys.
And reason why they decided to do that is that these doctors took note that in other separation surgeries, when they did the final one, it was a long process. It could be 30 or even 50 hours and the doctors at Montefiore want to cut that down. They want it make it more like 10 hours. that's a very, very a long surgery for two little children to survive.
So they're hoping to have better results if they do it gradually, do a whole bunch of surgeries ending with one that's shorter than what it's been traditionally.
PHILLIPS: And quickly, how are the Egyptian twins doing?
COHEN: The Egyptian twins that were operated on October 12, one of them has actually been taken off of a ventilator. This is Mohamad and Ahmad Ibrahim. And the other one has not done as well. He's had three seizures and they are just now taking him out of his drug- induced coma.
This is something they sometimes do after these procedures is that they actually will actually put the children in a coma because it reduces blood flow to the brain and it reduces swelling and bleeding. So the second one is not doing as well as the first it seems.
PHILLIPS: Well we'll continue to follow the progress on all of the kids.
COHEN: That's right.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 20, 2003 - 11:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's the miracle of medicine. Doctors here in the U.S. are operating on another set of conjoined twins, the first of several surgeries taking place New York right now for a pair of 18-month-old Filipino boys. The operation comes a week after the operation of conjoined Egyptian twins in Dallas.
CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen on set with us to talk us to more about this. A lot of different separations going on, gosh, even in the past year, let's talk about this.
(CROSSTALK)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: ... heard about them and now there's been many. And we'll talk about what they all learned from one other.
Let's first talk about Carl and Clarence Aguirre, Filipinos, as Kyra mentioned, who are being separated at the Children's Hospital in Montefiore in New York City. These two boys, what they've done this morning with them is trying to stretch the scalp and the skin so that when they are separated a couple of months from now they'll be able to take their skin and cover up that wound. That's one of the three things they're trying to do.
The second one is a craniotomy. They actually make a little window in the skull so they can get a better picture of the vessels look like inside.
And thirdly, if the boys are doing OK in the course of the operation, they hope to start the process of tying off some of these veins that they share. In other words, separating them off and putting them back -- making them separate so that the boys don't have blood flow going from one to the other.
But a woman from the hospital said we might not be able to get to that. It all depends how they're doing under anesthesia. But those are the three things they're trying to do this morning.
PHILLIPS: Is it the same type of separation as the Egyptian twins went through just last week?
COHEN: No, this one will be a little bit different. They've done this preliminary surgery today. They'll do three to five more procedures before they do the big one a couple of months from now to finally separate two boys.
And reason why they decided to do that is that these doctors took note that in other separation surgeries, when they did the final one, it was a long process. It could be 30 or even 50 hours and the doctors at Montefiore want to cut that down. They want it make it more like 10 hours. that's a very, very a long surgery for two little children to survive.
So they're hoping to have better results if they do it gradually, do a whole bunch of surgeries ending with one that's shorter than what it's been traditionally.
PHILLIPS: And quickly, how are the Egyptian twins doing?
COHEN: The Egyptian twins that were operated on October 12, one of them has actually been taken off of a ventilator. This is Mohamad and Ahmad Ibrahim. And the other one has not done as well. He's had three seizures and they are just now taking him out of his drug- induced coma.
This is something they sometimes do after these procedures is that they actually will actually put the children in a coma because it reduces blood flow to the brain and it reduces swelling and bleeding. So the second one is not doing as well as the first it seems.
PHILLIPS: Well we'll continue to follow the progress on all of the kids.
COHEN: That's right.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
