Formerly Conjoined Twins Leave Houston Hospital

Ten days after surgeons separated them, formerly conjoined twins Thursday left Houston’s Hermann Children’s Hospital in individual strollers.

“This is the result of everything going our way,” said Dr. Kevin P. Lally, chief of surgery at the hospital and faculty member at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

The 10-month-old twins’ parents have asked that their names be withheld to protect their privacy.

Lally said there are some problems with healing the area where the twins were separated.

Prior to the operation, doctors inserted skin expanders to stretch the skin in the abdominal area. Even so, there was barely enough to close the wound where the separation took place. However, Lally said the problems can be managed on an outpatient basis.

The pair were joined at the chest and abdomen. The babies’ livers were also joined and had to be separated.

In addition, Lally had to connect one baby’s bile duct to her intestine.

He said he was worried that the repair would not work and a liver transplant might be needed, but that the child’s bilirubin level - a measurement of how well the liver is working - is now normal.

Lally said he will continue to monitor those levels in months to come, but he is optimistic that the repair will hold.

The twins, who were born at Hermann 10 months ago, went home after doctors decided they should get bigger before undergoing separation surgery.

At 10 months, when the babies reached 13 and 15 pounds each, Lally decided it was time to separate them.

Their progress since the surgery on April 7 has been smooth, with both quickly regaining the ability to breathe on their own.

Last weekend, one of the babies began eating food and the second quickly followed.

When it became apparent that they could absorb food, Lally gave permission for them to return home.

“We are all ecstatic,” he said.