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Conjoined Twins Ready to Leave Hospital & Could Be on Their Way Home

by Medindia Content Team on Dec 14 2006 12:51 AM

Canadian Conjoined twin girls, Krista and Tatiana Hogan, who were born in late October, could be going home for Christmas, leaving the hospital as early as Thursday – doctors reported on Wednesday, who added that no decision has been made on whether to attempt to separate them.

After the premature birth of the girls in late October, they were found to be healthy and growing at a normal rate, weighing around 6.6 pounds and 20 inches in height at the British Columbia Women's Hospital in Vancouver.

Doctors said that though the girls appear to share a portion of a brain, they have also begun to demonstrate distinctive personalities.

The new born girls come under the category of Craniopagus twins’, meaning they’re joined at the head, a rare condition that may only occur once in every 2.5 million births. Doctors say the girls' brains are actually connected at the top, sharing a brain stem that brings information to the surface of the brain and delivers it through the spinal cord, making the twins even more unique than doctors would have thought previously.

Moreover doctors said that the tests, which are needed, for determining how many brain functions the twins share, the girls have to grow a bit older to handle the dye used for the process. Now the question facing doctors and the children's family is how much injury surgery would do to the girl's brains and there are also some basic problems faced in case of bathing, feeding, moving them etc.

The twins are expected to remain at their home until March or April and return to the hospital for further assessment of their chances of a successful separation.



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Source-Medindia
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