Conjoined two-year-old twin girls, who were separated at a California hospital this week, are recovering in stable condition after 17 hours of surgery.
The operation on Erika and Eva Sandoval, who faced each other, was done at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, California.
Hospital officials said the surgery was challenging because the twins shared much of their lower body and only had one liver, one bladder and three legs.
The team started the surgery on Tuesday, dividing the bladder into two separate organs before splitting the liver to give half to each child, a hospital statement said.
The girls each have one leg with doctors using the third leg for reconstruction, taking its skin and muscle to close one child's abdominal wall, officials said.
"Seeing them now in the ICU, you look at them and think you're missing your other half, but we know that this is the right path for them," mother Aida Sandoval said in a statement.
The girls are expected to remain in the intensive care unit at the hospital for two weeks.
Separation surgery is performed about five times a year in the United States, with doctors successfully handling one last month in Memphis, Tennessee, on twin sisters born in Nigeria.
Most conjoined twins die in the womb, and about half who are born alive do not make it past a day.
