Conjoined twins separated after rare surgery in Israel

One-year-old conjoined twin girls, whose names have not been released, underwent a 12-hour operation at the Soroka Medical Centre in the city of Beersheba, Israel last week to be separated in rare surgery that has only ever been conducted 20 times. 

This is the first time an operation of this kind has been performed in Israel and took months of preparation with a team of 50 involved in the planning and surgery. 

Planning started while the babies were still in utero as the team worked closely with several high-tech companies, developing 3D models and using virtual reality simulations to prepare for the surgery.

“They are recovering well, and they are neurologically ok,” Mickey Gideon, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Soroka Medical Center who led the surgery said. “Cognitively we can’t estimate yet. We have to wait and examine them and see what happens.”

Following their operation, the girls were separated to receive care but were put in the same crib on Sunday, where they could see each other for the first time.

“The first two days after the operation we saw that they were a little agitated, and when we put them together it was a wonderful moment to see how they became calm and quiet,” said Gideon. “For the first time they were looking at each other after being attached at the back of their head.”