Doctors separated two-year-old Egyptian twins joined at the crown of their heads yesterday, giving them independent lives in a medical procedure that, so far, has had no complications.
Eighteen doctors working in shifts have been operating on Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim at the Children's Medical Center of Dallas, in Texas.
They were separated about 27 hours after the surgery started and doctors were working to reconstruct their skulls and close their wounds, the hospital said in a statement.
After more than a day of surgery, doctors completed the most difficult and dangerous part of the procedure - separating the shared brain material and the shared circulatory systems that feed bloods to their brains.
Dr Jim Thomas, the chief of critical care at the hospital, told a news conference the medical procedure was in the "home stretch". He said that during surgery the boys had not suffered major blood loss, had had no pulmonary problems and no significant or unexpected swelling in either of their brains.
"Things have gone according to surgical plans. There have been no surprises, and none of the potential complications that surgeons have prepared for have occurred," he said.
Meanwhile in Rome, a team of Italian doctors has separated four-month-old Greek twin girls joined at the temple in a 12-hour operation, a medical source said yesterday. - (Reuters)