Doctors at King George's Medical University have successfully separated conjoined twins after a nine-hour surgery.

It was for the first time that such a surgery has been done in the KGMU. The babies are responding well after surgery that ended early November 10. They have been kept under observation. The real test would be when the babies begin to accept and digest food. "That is when we can say that the surgery has been successful in the true sense of the term," one of the doctors said. The twins were born to a couple in Kushinagar district last year in November. The babies had two livers but they were joined. Similarly, the epicardium (outermost layer of the heart), chest and a part of the food pipe were also joined together.

The parents brought the twins to KGMU with the help of an NGO a few months ago. The conjoined twins were first examined by the department of paediatric surgery which suggested that the separation surgery should be done after they are at least a year old. Head of the department Prof S.N. Kureel planned a surgery to separate the twins with the help of various super-speciality departments.

While Prof Kureel and J.D. Rawat of paediatrics surgery coordinated the surgery, head of gastro surgery department Prof Abhijit Chandra and his colleague Vivek Gupta worked on separation of liver and food pipe. Ambrish Kumar performed the separation of heart and chest. The team of anesthesia department comprising head Prof G.P. Singh, Vinita Singh and Satish Verma assisted doctors in all the surgeries.