Conjoined twins'' surgery halted in Ohio
Jun. 7, 2007

An operation to begin separating 3-year-old twin girls joined at the head was halted because one girl's brain was swollen, a hospital official said Thursday. Medications to reduce the swelling were ineffective, and doctors closed an opening to Tatiana and Anastasia Dogaru's brains without beginning to separate them Wednesday, said Nathan Levitan, the surgery team leader and chief medical officer at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. The twins, born in Italy to Romanian parents, were awake and alert a day after the operation, he said. Doctors at University Hospitals'' Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital discovered the swollen brain tissue of Anastasia, the larger and stronger twin, after removing a section of bone. Doctors also noted that her blood pressure was lower than usual. "They felt that it would not be safe to cut into the brain tissue or the surrounding blood vessels in any way, without first understanding the cause of the swelling as well as the slightly low blood pressure," Levitan said.

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