British doctors separate conjoined twins

Doctors in London have separated a pair of Sudanese twins that were conjoined at the head. The operation appears to be a success. 

LONDON, ENGLAND (Catholic Online) - Children, conjoined at the head are rare, occurring in 1 of every 2.5 million births. The condition is known as "craniopagus twins." Procedures to separate craniopagus twins are risky, especially if the bodes share significant blood flow. 

In the case the 11 month-old twins, Rital and Ritag Gaboura, their condition was particularly dangerous. Doctors noted that when children are conjoined, one child's heart will work harder to pump blood through both bodies. This can cause the heart to weaken and eventually fail. Doctors said that Ritag's heart was stronger and was already showing signs of distress. 

The operation as funded by Facing the World, a charity that is dedicated to helping disfigured children. Facing the World funded the successful four-stage operation.

The operation took place in stages at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Two preliminary operations were conducted in May. In July, a third operation was performed to help expand the skin and tissue over their heads. The final operation, the separation, took place on August 15. 

Lead surgeon, David Dunaway said in a statement released by the charity, "Incidences of surviving twins with this condition is extremely rare. The task presented innumerable challenges, and we were all very aware of our responsibilities to the family and these two little girls."

Although such procedures are rare, they have been done many times before. The first successful operation to separate crainopagus twins was done in 1956. More recently, in 2003 and 2004 operations were performed in the U.S. to separate a pair of Egyptian twins and another pair of Filipino twins. Both operations were successful. 

Rital and Ritiag are reported to be recovering well and they are not showing any signs of having any neurological damage, which sometimes occurs because of separation.

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