One-year-old twins conjoined at the head are separated after 12-hour surgery

One-year-old twin girls conjoined at the back of the head have been successfully separated by doctors in Israel.

Medics at the Soroka Medical Centre in Be'er Sheva took 12 hours to carry out the procedure.

It involved cranial reconstruction and scalp grafts and followed months of planning by experts from Israel and abroad, including the simulation of a 3D virtual reality model of the twins.

© Reuters Born with their heads conjoined back-to-back, the twins can finally see one another

The rare separation surgery is only thought to have been carried out 20 times worldwide.

But after a successful day in theatre, the girls are finally able to see one another for the first time.

Video footage from the hospital show the sisters lying happily in their cot with bandages around their heads.

Their names have not been revealed.

"They are recovering nicely. They are breathing and eating on their own," Eldad Silberstein, the head of the hospital's plastic surgery department, told Israel's Channel 12 news.

Dr Owase Jeelani, a paediatric neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, who was also involved, added: "It has gone extremely well, I'm delighted how well the whole team has done, it's an excellent team here and it's been a real pleasure to be a part of it." 

Reference: Sky News: