Olivia Cavallaro Tech 08.02.2022 06:Aug AM EDT

Surgeons Use Virtual Reality Surgery to Separate 3-Year-Old Conjoined Twins

Conjoined twins in Brazil were successfully separated following a virtual reality surgery conducted by a British neurosurgeon.

Twin boys who lived the first three years of their lives conjoined at the head were finally separated following a virtual reality surgery. Brazilian twins Bernardo and Arthur Lima were born with fused brains and recently underwent several operations in Rio de Janeiro to finally be separated.

According to the PEOPLE, the surgeries were conducted by pediatric surgeon Noor ul Owase Jeelani from London's Great Ormond Street Hospital as the actual operation took place at the Instituto Estadual do Cerebro Paulo Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The final two of the seven procedures took up to 33 hours and were attended by almost 100 medical staff. Jeelani called the procedures a "remarkable achievement" that required medical professionals to excel in virtual reality training programs for months before they carried it out in real life. It was this training that enabled surgeons from different countries to work together in a singular "virtual reality room" to conduct the procedure.

Doctor-led Charity Foundation Funded the Miraculous Surgery on the Brazilian Conjoined Twins

The grueling virtual reality surgery was funded by the charity Gemini Untwined, an organization geared towards the research and treatment of craniopagus twins, that was founded by Jeelani in 2018. Jeelani described it as one of the most complex separation processes ever completed, the Evening Standard reported.

Surgeons in both London and Rio had to undergo months of challenging techniquest using virtual reality projections of the conjoined twins based on CT and MRI scans, which Jeelani said were "space-age stuff." He added that the virtual reality surgery helped them practice for the surgery before placing the conjoined twins at any risk, something that he called "reassuring" for doctors like himself.

Virtual Reality Surgery Described as 'Risky'

The Brazilian conjoined twins had previously undergone unsuccessful attempts at surgical separation, leaving them with scar tissue. This worried Jeelani, who admitted that he was "absolutely shattered" after the hours of labor in the surgical room.

But all their hard work paid off as the virtual reality surgery was successful and the conjoined twins were finally separated. As with other newly separated conjoined twins, however, their blood pressures were high until they were reunited four days later and got to see each other face to face. The boys are now recovering well.

Jeelani and his charity continue to work hard to establish a "global repository for knowledge and experience" for conjoined twins separation surgery and hopes that it would become a leading example for providing expert care in other rare illnesses. The surgeon has conducted five other separation procedures with Gemini Untwined, operating on twins from Pakistan, Sudan, Israel, and Turkey.

Jeelani led the procedure alongside Dr. Gabriel Mufarrej, who serves as the head of pediatric surgery at Instituto Estadual do Cerebro Paulo Niemeyer in Brazil. Mufarrej shared that the twins had been cared for at the hospital where he serves for two and a half years now and their much-awaited separation was truly "life-changing."

Gemini Untwined said that one in 60,000 births are of conjoined twins. Of that figure, 5% are joined at the head in a condition called craniopagus children. Annually, 50 sets of twins are born joined at the head, but only 15 survive beyond the first 30 days after their birth.