Mali surgeons perform landmark conjoined-twin operation

The newborn girls shared a bladder and colon before undergoing surgery at a Bamako hospital, the Health Ministry has said Malian doctors have successfully separated conjoined twin girls in what the government described as the first operation of its kind in the West African country.

The procedure was performed on Wednesday by a multidisciplinary team at Gabriel Toure University Hospital in the capital, Bamako, the Health Ministry announced the next day.

The twins were born by cesarean section on August 29 following a full-term pregnancy in which congenital abnormalities had already been detected.

They were joined through parts of their urinary and digestive systems and shared a bladder and colon, according to an official account reported by local outlet Maliweb.

Health Minister Assa Badiallo Toure visited the newborns and praised the medical team.

“Such an operation is truly a feat,” she said, describing it as an important milestone for specialized medicine in Mali.

Hospital director Professor Thierno Madani Diop assembled a team of pediatric surgeons, anesthesiologists, intensive-care specialists, cardiologists, radiologists, pharmacists, and laboratory and operating-room personnel to carry out the procedure.

READ MORE: Russia trains Ugandan specialists amid Ebola threat Conjoined twins develop when a single embryo does not divide completely during the early stages of pregnancy.

The condition occurs in an estimated one in 50,000 to 200,000 births, and the viability of separation depends largely on which organs the twins share, according to the US National Library of Medicine.

The operation in Mali follows another rare medical success in Africa in March, when doctors at Mankweng Hospital, a rural public facility in South Africa, separated conjoined newborns.

The babies were reported to be in stable condition in neonatal intensive care after the procedure, according to the South African government.