 | | Dr. Jorge Lazareff, director of the UCLA Pediatric Neurosurgery Program and lead neurosurgeon, smiles at a news conference, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2002 |
One-year-old Guatemalan twins joined at the head were separated in a marathon operation that ended early Tuesday, but one sister was returned to surgery a few hours later because of bleeding on her brain.Maria Teresa Quiej Alvarez and her sister, Maria de Jesus, were in critical but stable condition Tuesday night at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center, but doctors were optimistic about their recovery. They were expected to remain sedated and using breathing tubes for days. "I'm absolutely positive they will do OK. I'm absolutely positive if you go and visit them in five years they will be leading a normal life," said Dr. Jorge Lazareff, the lead neurosurgeon. The doctors' sense was that the girls fared well, but it remained to be determined whether they suffered any brain damage, said Dr. John Frazee, another neurosurgeon. "They're moving, which is a good sign. There's no way of knowing what the state of affairs is for another week," Frazee said. After the 22-hour risky separation surgery, Maria Teresa was wheeled back into the operating room for nearly five more hours because of a buildup of blood on her brain, Lazareff said. The girls were born attached at the top of the skull and faced opposite directions. While the two shared bone and blood vessels, they had separate brains. Cases like theirs occur in fewer than one in 2.5 million live births. In the riskiest part of the surgery, doctors had to separate blood vessels the two girls shared and decide which belonged to each child. That was followed by plastic surgery to extend each girl's scalp to cover the area where they had been attached. The two face still more operations to reconstruct their skulls. Surgeons around the world have performed cranial separations only five other times in the past decade, and not all twins have survived. (Agencies) | 一對(duì)僅一歲的危地馬拉連腦女?huà)朐诮?jīng)歷了一場(chǎng)馬拉松式的手術(shù)之后，終于被分開(kāi)了。手術(shù)于8月6日早上結(jié)束，但不幸的是僅僅在幾小時(shí)之后，其中一名女?huà)胍蝾^部出血而被再次送回手術(shù)室。 手術(shù)后當(dāng)晚，這對(duì)連體姐妹瑪利亞·特蕾莎·阿爾瓦雷斯和瑪利亞·赫蘇斯留在加利福尼亞洛杉磯醫(yī)學(xué)中心接受觀(guān)察，她們還沒(méi)有脫離危險(xiǎn)但情況還算穩(wěn)定。不過(guò)醫(yī)生對(duì)她們的康復(fù)是充滿(mǎn)信心的。在接下來(lái)的一段時(shí)間里，這對(duì)姐妹仍需要依靠鎮(zhèn)定劑和氧氣管維持生命。 主治醫(yī)生神經(jīng)外科醫(yī)生拉扎雷夫博士說(shuō)："我對(duì)她們的康復(fù)感到非常樂(lè)觀(guān)。我敢保證，如果你5年后再去看望這對(duì)姐妹，會(huì)看到她們已經(jīng)過(guò)上了正常人的生活。" 而另一位神經(jīng)外科醫(yī)生約翰·弗雷齊博士卻認(rèn)為，雖然目前這對(duì)姐妹的情況很好，但還不能確保她們的腦部沒(méi)有受到損傷。 弗雷齊說(shuō)："她們能夠活動(dòng)，這是一個(gè)很好的跡象。但在一個(gè)星期內(nèi)還無(wú)法確定她們的情況究竟如何"。  拉扎雷夫說(shuō)，在長(zhǎng)達(dá)22小時(shí)的險(xiǎn)象環(huán)生分離手術(shù)后，瑪利亞·特蕾沙由于腦部積血而被推回了手術(shù)室，手術(shù)又繼續(xù)了將近5小時(shí)之久。
兩姐妹生下來(lái)頭骨就相連，而臉則朝向相反的方向。她們共用骨骼和血管，但大腦卻是各自獨(dú)立的。這種情況出現(xiàn)的幾率不到250萬(wàn)分之一。 該手術(shù)最危險(xiǎn)的部分在于，醫(yī)生必須分離兩姐妹共享的血管并判斷哪一部分該屬于誰(shuí)。醫(yī)生在完成分離手術(shù)后還要對(duì)她們進(jìn)行外科整形，使每個(gè)女?huà)氲念^皮都能覆蓋她們被分離的部位。 接下來(lái)兩姐妹還將接受一系列修復(fù)頭骨的手術(shù)。 除了這次手術(shù)之外，在過(guò)去十年中，全世界僅實(shí)行了五例類(lèi)似的頭部分離外科手術(shù)，但并不是所有的雙胞胎都能夠存活下來(lái)。 (中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)站譯) |
Updated: 2002-08-09 01:00
