Updated 01:21am (Mla time) Aug 06, 2004
Agence France-Presse
NEW YORK CITY, New York, United States of America -- Two-year-old twins whose skulls had been fused together from birth were in stable condition Thursday, hours after being separated in a landmark surgical procedure spread over 10 months.
"They're doing well and there are no initial signs of any complications," said Pamela Adkins, a spokeswoman at New York's Montefiore Medical Center.
The Filipino twins, Carl and Clarence Aguirre, were finally separated in a 17-hour operation that ended in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The procedure, one of four operations the twins underwent, was deemed extremely risky, as the surgeons sought to separate the boys' final remaining shared veins while avoiding any excessive bleeding or swelling of their brains.
"There has been no evidence of any neurological compromise, which is huge," Adkins said, adding that the first 72 post-operative hours were the most critical.
"We'll be looking out for any infection and it'll be a few days until we know a little bit about how they are doing," she said.
The twins were physically separated Wednesday evening, after which doctors worked to reconstruct the tissue lining over their individual brains, using tissue from the boys' midsections.
Several major surgical procedures still lie ahead, particularly the construction of separate skull sections to protect the brains.
"At the moment there is no bone over the tops of each boys' head," Adkins said. "That will come later when the present incisions have healed."
For the first time, Carl and Clarence were sleeping in separate beds Thursday, although hospital staff said they were keeping them very close together.
Doctors considered the separation medically necessary for the twins, who had already suffered from aspiration pneumonia -- resulting from food becoming trapped in their respiratory systems -- and other medical challenges.
Instead of performing one lengthy operation, the medical team decided to conduct the separation over the course of four shorter operations.
The first surgery took place last October with a five-hour procedure to place balloons underneath the boys' scalps in a process called tissue expansion.
The operation was requested by the boys' mother, Arlene, a registered nurse who expressed her desire to have them separated so they will have an opportunity to lead independent lives.
Conjoined twins occur in approximately one in every 200,000 live births. Twins joined at the head are extremely rare -- representing roughly one in 10 million live births.
The Philippines on Thursday hailed the successful separation of the Aguirre twins.
"The president is very elated that the twins could now live normal lives," said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye.