Next few days critical for separated twins

The twins, joined at the head, were separated by Australian surgeons at 11am (AEDT) on Tuesday after a marathon 27 hours of surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.
   
Chief surgeon Leo Donnan said the risks associated with the procedure are far from over.

"There is no one moment of great celebration. There's relief and it's nice to know that we're onto the next stage," he told reporters.

"We've got a lot of unanswered, unknown territory we are moving into but all I can say is that everything is in place for the best possible outcome.

"Every step is an improvement."

After the separation, cranio-facial surgeons reconstructed the girls' skulls using a combination of their own skin, bone grafts and artificial materials.

This process was completed about 4pm and the girls were taken out of the operating theatre.

They will be kept in comas for a number of days in intensive care and be gradually woken up.

Their breathing will be controlled by ventilators so the medical team can best manage their recovery.

Children First Foundation chief executive Margaret Smith said she would be very relieved when the girls are in intensive care.

"No cake, no cake yet. I think when we've got them to ICU we'll be all very relieved and then it will just be a day-by-day, hour-by-hour," she told reporters.
   
"They're going to need to be here (in Australia) for medical treatment for a long time."

The foundation brought the twins to Australia from Bangladesh more than two years ago.

The extra skin used in the reconstruction work was created by tissue expanders inserted for the second time in August by the plastic and maxillofacial team, led by surgeon Andrew Greensmith.