They managed to separate two one-year-old twins who joined at the head | The operation took place in Israel

Two one-year-old twins reunited by the head were successfully separated in an operation in Israel. The intervention took twelve hours and it took 50 staff from the Soroka Medical Center in southern Israel.

They were born in August 2020 and were attached to the back of the head. During these months, exhaustive tests were carried out to certify the viability of the operation. Doctors were to monitor cardiac and respiratory functions.

In the intervention, girls’ brains and blood vessels could be separated; and the skull, meninges and skin were recovered. Mickey Gordon, director of the medical centre’s pediatric neurosurgery department, said that they hope the twins will “make a full recovery”. He also noted that there were twenty such operations around the world.

The girls can be seen for the first time, since the union of heads forced them in their first year of life to live behind each other’s backs. During these months, surgeons from the United States and the United Kingdom were trained in the operation.

The team of surgeons prepared a 3D virtual reality model of the girls’ shared brain structures, skull bones, skin and blood vessels. They did this through imaging techniques, CT scans and angiograms.

In the months leading up to the operation, silicone sacs inserted into the twins’ heads were inflated to stretch the skin, periodically. The stretched skin was then used to close the head.

The girls’ father, whose names are withheld, said he was delighted to be able to lift them individually for the first time.