Doctors separate conjoined twins in 24-hour operation

TWIN girls born joined from the stomach to the hip were recovering in intensive care yesterday after they were successfully separated in an operation lasting nearly 24 hours.

The nine-month-old girls were in a serious, but stable condition at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, doctors said.

Surgeons began the operation on Wednesday morning, delicately separating a number of the girls’ internal organs.

The identical twins were each born with one normally-developed leg, and they shared a conjoined leg. Doctors used that leg to replace tissue and bone in the girls’ pelvic regions.

Lead surgeon James Stein said he was pleased with the operation.

“For the girls, it’s the beginning of a life with two separate bodies able now to participate in society as two individuals,” he said.

The large intestine could not be divided and went to one twin. Surgeons also performed a liver separation and did reconstruction on the girls’ urinary and reproductive tracts.

Doctors refused to identify the babies or their parents, saying the family had requested privacy.

The girls were born with a fraternal triplet sister who developed normally. The case marks the second known instance of conjoined twins born as part of a triplet set, according to the hospital.

The operation comes roughly a year after Guatemalan twins born joined at the head were successfully separated at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital.

Identical twins are born conjoined when embryos from a single egg fail to fully separate.

Of the approximately 200 pairs of conjoined twins born alive each year, about half die before their first birthday, according to Dr Marcelo Cardarelli, the University of Maryland Medical Centre surgeon who helped separate twins girls from Uganda last year.