Surgeons in Baltimore prepared German twins joined at the tops of their skulls Saturday for an operation to separate them.
Lea and Tabea Block, 13-month-old girls from Lemgo, Germany, were expected to begin the procedure Saturday at Johns Hopkins Hospital that could last until sometime Monday, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Conjoined heads occur in about one of every 2 million births. The twins' brains appear separate, but the risk of substantial blood loss is high, not least because they share a blood vessel between their brains.
The medical team of about 50 will be led by Dr. Benjamin Carson, the renowned director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Carson will be attempting his fifth such operation. Two of them have been successful.
"Operations of this kind are not only very rare, but always highly complicated as well," Carson told Stern, a German magazine to which the girls' parents have granted rights to their story in exchange for help with fund raising.
© Copyright 2004 by United Press International
