UK surgeons separate twin girls joined at head

The twins were separated in a rare and risky series of operations at a London childrens hospital, officials said.Facing the World, a charity which helps disfigured children, said it had helped fund the four-stage operation to split 11-month-old Rital Gaboura from her sister, Ritag. Twins born joined at the head are known as craniopagus twins and they occur in about one in 2.5 million births. Splitting them can be dangerous, especially if as in this case theres significant blood flow between their brains.Incidences of surviving twins with this condition is extremely rare, lead surgeon David Dunaway said in a statement released by the charity. The task presented innumerable challenges and we were all very aware of our responsibilities to the family and these two little girls.The charity released before and after photographs of the girls. The before photo showed the two sprawled out on a bed, with their heads joined just above the hairline to form what appeared to be a single, solid unit. Facing the World said that separation took place in stages at Londons Great Ormond Street Hospital, with two operations in May, the insertion of tissue expanders in July and the final separation on Aug. 15.Within days the twins were back on the general ward interacting and playing as before, the charity said. Its executive coordinator, Sarah Driver-Jowitt, predicted that the girls parents who havent been named may soon return home with two healthy, separate girls.Although rare, operations to separate twins linked by their heads arent unheard of. In 2004, a team of doctors at New Yorks Montefiore Childrens Hospital separated Filipino twins in four major surgeries that took place over 10 months. In 2003, surgeons in Dallas successfully separated 2-year-old Egyptian twins joined at the head.One of the first successful operations to separate craniopagus twins took place in 1956, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.