Conjoined twins developing normally

Category Health, people | Permalink | 12. March 2007

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VANCOUVER - Conjoined twin girls who made headlines with their birth four months ago are growing and developing “in a normal kind of way,” medical experts said Thursday.

Krista and Tatiana Hogan were back in Vancouver this week undergoing a series of diagnostic tests designed to help doctors determine if the girls can be safely separated.

The babies arrived at B.C. Children’s Hospital from their Vernon, B.C., home Monday with their parents Felicia Simms and Brendan Hogan. They have since undergone evaluation by a number of medical experts from physio and occupational therapists to neurosurgeons, all seeking to better understand the girls’ development.

On Thursday, the hospital held press conference to explain what the tests have revealed.

Dr. Douglas Cochrane, pediatric neurosurgeon at the hospital, said tests have shown the girls have different sleeping patterns, and separate functions in hearing, vision and touch. The girls are also showing a normal range of mobility, given their physical limitations.

All this is important as doctors try to determine what functions, if any, the children will lose if they are separated.

“Separation will likely occur at the cost of something and we’re trying to understand what that cost will be,” Cochrane said.

Born Oct. 25, Krista now weights 4.9 kg, while Tatiana weighs 3.3 kg.

Earlier scans of the girls, who are joined at the head, show that they share bone material, vascular pathways and some brain tissue.

Cochrane said the section of the brain that is conjoined typically controls nerve information to and from the body. But without further testing, “its significance is really unknown.”

A planned angiography - a test whereby a dye is injected in order to highlight via X-ray the anatomy of blood vessels in the brain - was cancelled Thursday because the babies were tired after days of X-rays and scans, Cochrane said.

The test is “fundamental” in understanding whether separation will be possible, Cochrane said, adding, “We will just have to wait until the children are up to having the study done.”

He declined to estimate when the test may be rescheduled.

The twins were to be released from hospital Friday.

The babies’ parents have said they are not overly concerned about their chances of being separated.,

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