Siamese twins' chances improve

THE TWO surgeons who separated Siamese twin girls in a high- risk operation said yesterday that they were confident they can survive. They said the babies, who were born last Thursday, were "very fragile" but improving.

It was feared that the girls, who had been joined at the liver and intestine, would not survive the operation last Friday night. But at Great Ormond Street hospital in London yesterday, the doctors, Professor Lewis Spitz and Edward Kiely, said they were hopeful the girls' parents would be able to handle them by next week.

Mr Kiely said: "I would say they have a better than 50-50 chance. They have been progressing better than I had expected."

During the complex three-hour operation the babies, who are from the Bristol area, needed external cardiac massage to restart their hearts. The doctors discovered that the shared intestines had been damaged and infected, and the stronger child underwent a repair procedure. The other girl was too weak, and will have a second operation later.

Because of their separation the girls, weighing 2kg each, have been left without enough skin on their abdominal regions. The surgeons have covered the areas with a temporary plastic mesh which will be tightened to help the skin and muscle to join together.

Ideally, the separation of the two girls would have been delayed until they were three months old, but they were so ill with peritonitis that action had to be taken at once.

The parents, who have asked to remain anonymous, were aware halfway through the pregnancy that the girls were joined together. The twins were born by Caesarean section at 35 weeks.