LONDON — Sudanese twins born with the tops of their heads joined together have been separated in a rare and risky series of operations at a London children’s hospital, officials said Sunday.
Facing the World, a charity that helps disfigured children, said it had helped fund the four-stage operation on 11-month-old girls Rital and Ritag Gaboura. Twins born joined at the head are known as craniopagus twins, and they occur in about one in 2.5 million births.
Separating them can be dangerous, especially if — as in this case — there’s 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.”
Facing the World said that separation took place in stages at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, with two operations in May, the insertion of tissue expanders in July and the final separation Aug. 15.
