EGYPT: EGYPTIAN DOCTORS REMOVE SECOND HEAD FROM A 10-MONTH-OLD GIRL SUFFERING FROM CRANIOPAGUS PARASITICUS

Record ID: 647023

  • Title: EGYPT: EGYPTIAN DOCTORS REMOVE SECOND HEAD FROM A 10-MONTH-OLD GIRL SUFFERING FROM CRANIOPAGUS PARASITICUS
  • Date: 19th February 2005
  • Summary: (W3) BENHA, EGYPT (FEBRUARY 19, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF HOSPITAL (2 SHOTS) 0.08 2. CU: OPERATION ROOM SIGN 0.13 3. VARIOUS OF BOTH BABIES BEFORE OPERATION (HOSPITAL PICTURES) (3 SHOTS) 0.57 4. STILLS OF DOCTORS OPERATING ON BABIES (3 SHOTS) 1.14 5. SOUNDBITE (English) DR. ABLA EL-ALFY CONSULTANT OF ICU IN MANAR HOSPITAL SAYING: "Manar was born on the 30th of march last year and she suffered from a rare congenital formation called cognise twins she had the rarest type of this rare congenital formation where she had communication between the brain of herself and the ... which was with her. This account for 2 per million; we kept Manar and her twin with us for the past 10 month when she was suffering from some respiratory problems and infections and we stabilised the problem and investigated it well and we finally decided to operate on her to work out the case, we called the professor of new surgery and the professor of anaesthesia and his team and people from medical care from this hospital and then we went on with the operation yesterday. It took us 12 hours to finish the surgery after that the baby was sifted to the ICU." 2.16 6. VARIOUS SHOTS OF MANAR AFTER OPERATION IN THE INTENSIVE CARE (2 SHOTS) 2.26 7. CU/ZOOM IN: MEDIC MONITOR'S MANAR'S HEART (2 SHOTS) 2.40 8. CU: MANAR IN INCUBATOR AFTER OPERATION 2.47 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 6th March 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BENHA, EGYPT
  • Country: Egypt
  • Reuters ID: LVAAYDF1O04YZRFE88H5BASVIM5Y
  • Story Text: Egyptian doctors say remove baby's second head.


    Egyptian doctors said they removed a second head
    from a 10-month-old girl suffering from one of the rarest
    birth defects in an operation on Saturday.

    Abla el-Alfy, a consultant in paediatric intensive
    care, told Reuters at the hospital in Benha, near Cairo,
    that Manar Maged was in a serious but improving condition
    after the procedure to treat her for craniopagus
    parasiticus -- a problem related to that of conjoined twins
    linked at the skull.

    Video footage provided by the hospital, a national
    centre in Egypt for children's medicine, showed Manar
    smiling and at ease in a cot with the dark-haired
    "parasitic" twin, attached at the upper left side of the
    girl's skull, occasionally blinking.

    After the 13-hour operation, Reuters journalists saw
    the baby, her head swathed in bandages and body wreathed by
    tubes, in an intensive care ward. A separate twin sister,
    Noora, is healthy after initial problems with the birth on
    March 30.

    Alfy said the 13-strong surgical team separated Manar's
    brain from the conjoined organ in small stages, cutting off
    the blood supply to the extra head while preventing
    increased blood flow to Manar's heart, which would have
    risked cardiac arrest.

    Benha, 40 km (25 miles) north of Cairo, was chosen for
    its equipment and proximity to the girl's family.

    Alfy said Manar's skull had been reconstructed during
    surgery and her skin had been joined over the bone, leaving
    no need for further reconstructive surgery.

    The doctors decided not to carry out Manar's operation
    soon after her birth.

    "We kept Manar and her twin with us for the past 10
    month when she was suffering from some respiratory problems
    and infections and we stabilised the problem and
    investigated it well and we finally decided to operate on her to work
    o
    ut the case, " Alfy said.

    She plans to keep Manar in intensive care for up to 10
    days and remains cautious.

    The condition occurs when an embryo begins to split
    into identical twins but fails to complete the process and
    one of the the conjoined twins fails to develop fully in
    the womb.

    The second twin can form as an extra limb, a complete
    second body lacking vital organs, or, in very rare cases, a
    head.

    As in the case of a girl who died after surgery in the
    Dominican Republic a year ago, the second twin had
    developed no body. The head that was removed from Manar had
    been capable of smiling and blinking but not independent
    life, doctors said.



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