Twin boys from Brazil, Arthur and Bernardo are successfully operated for a rare birth scenario, taking help from Virtual Reality.
The three years-old Craniopagus Twins, which is a medical term used to describe children born with independent bodies but critically joined together from the skulls, carried a high risk to life whether treated or left conjoined.
Having shown a no-hope sign from expert neurosurgeons, the medical team at the hospital in Rio de Janeiro contacted a British based fundraiser, Gemini Untwined, who specializes in craniopagus cases.
An innovative thinker, and medical inspiration, the center was founded in 2018 by Dr. Noor Ul Owase Jeelani, who’s a leading British Kashmiri neurosurgeon and is keen to offer hope and solution to surgeons across the globe.
But how does VR become an aid for neurosurgeons?
Given the complexity of dealing with craniopagus cases and added risk from the old age of boys, Dr. Noor and his team found the only way out in Virtual Reality.
We became quite apprehensive about the surgery since the two toddlers shared vital nerves in their brains, writes Dr. Noor at Gemini Untwined.
For the first time in medical history, doctors from the UK, and those in Brazil wore VR headsets and operated the virtual boys in a virtual operation theater
BBC News
A VR environment was created to test the many procedures available to the team in order to successfully separate the boys.
Virtual projections of boys with detailed anatomy of the brains was created using medical imaging technology, making 3D projections from Computerized Tomography (CT), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans.
“It’s just wonderful. It’s really great to see the anatomy and do the surgery before you actually put the children at any risk”, stated Dr. Noor.
Life Saving!
After months of medical procedure planning the VR aided plan was finally taken to the real surgery room.
There were a total of seven surgeries, in which participation of 100 medical staff took place, and the final surgery alone took 27 hours.
The boys, separated now, are under careful habilitation, and are to remain there for six months.
Thanks to VR, and the bold steps by the medical staff at Rio and Gemini Untwined, the boys will soon be celebrating their fourth birthday seeing each other face to face for the first time.
