LIFESTYLE NEWS - The successful separation of two year old conjoined twins at Kenyatta National Hospital marked a medical milestone in Kenya.
Other than South Africa, very few successful separations have been performed in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya a multi-disciplinary team of medical experts operated on the twins for 23 uninterrupted hours.
The Conversation Africa’s health and medicine editor Joy Wanja Muraya spoke to Dr Joseph Wanjeri about the surgery and post recovery of the twins who are home.
Can you explain conjoined twins, and its prevalence?
Conjoined twins are two babies born physically connected to each other. The extent and site of their union varies from sharing a band of skin and underlying tissues to more complex varieties sharing vital organs.
Research shows that cases of conjoined twins are found in one of every 50,000 live births globally. Kenya does not have a central repository for such cases.
Conjoined twins are the result of the embryo cells that have not completely separated. Embryo cells develop when the egg (ovum) is fertilised by sperm. They multiply and differentiate to form different body organs and tissues.
An alternative theory is that two separate embryos fuse together in the early development of the twins.
