Conjoined Siamese twins who were joined at the skull was successfully separated by the team of 40 doctors in an operation that lasted for more than 36 hours in India .
The two-year-old twin boys, who suffered a rare condition occurring once in about 2.5 million births, underwent the operation at a government-run hospital in New Delhi on Wednesday.
“It was a team work of 40 doctors, 20 nurses and many other paramedical staff. Without their help this would not have been possible,” the All India Institute of Medical Science hospital said in a statement.
One of the surgeons involved said the most challenging aspect was repairing the holes left in the young boys’ heads after they were separated.
The twins were born in a village in the eastern state of Orissa with shared blood vessels and some shared brain tissue
They had undergone the first phase of the separation surgery in August.
“The most challenging job after the separation was to provide a skin cover on both sides of the brain for the children as the surgery had left large holes on their heads,” said Maneesh Singhal, a plastic surgeon who was a part of the operating team.
“The skin was generated from the expansion of two balloons which were placed inside their heads during the first surgery in August,” Singhal told AFP on Friday.