Doctors successfully separate twins joined at head

TWO-YEAR-OLD twins from the Philippines born with their heads fused together were “strong and stable” after being separated in a marathon operation.

Surgeons, nurses and technicians applauded in the operating room after Carl and Clarence Aguirre were surgically separated, said Steve Osborne, a spokesman for the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Centre in New York.

The operation, which continued for several hours after the separation, was completed at 8.20am yesterday, Mr Osborne said. David Staffenberg, the plastic surgeon, said the boys were “strong and stable”.

Dr Staffenberg delivered the news of the separation to the twins’ mother, Arlene Aguirre by telling her: “You’re now the mother of two boys,” said hospital spokeswoman Pamela Adkins. Ms Aguirre burst into tears, she said.

Doctors teased apart abutting portions of the boys’ brains after completing an incision around their skull, and the twins’ head-to-head operating tables were then slightly pulled apart, said Mr Osborne.

Reconstruction of the boys’ skulls, a major project, is to be left for later.

The separation was the culmination of a gradual surgical approach that lasted 10 months. Over four major surgeries since October, the boys’ brains were gently pushed apart and the tangle of blood vessels they shared were cut and divided..

It is likely to be months before the twins’ conditions can be fully assessed, their doctors said.