Surgery to separate German twins connected at the head resumed in Maryland on Wednesday after complications affecting one of the girls halted an earlier operation, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Lea and Tabea Block, 13-month-old twins from Lemgo, Germany, returned to the operating room at about 6 a.m. EDT for surgery that could take all day, said Staci Vernick at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore.
The hospital’s first attempt to separate them on Saturday was halted after about 7-1/2 hours after one girl suffered “metabolic complications,” Johns Hopkins said without elaborating on Sunday.
The twins are joined at the top of their heads, a condition known as “craniopagus twins,” and share blood vessels between their brains.
They had preliminary surgery in June to insert tissue expanders beneath their scalps, the hospital said.
Doctors injected sterile fluid into the expanders in the weeks following that operation to gradually stretch the skin with the goal of having enough skin to cover the surgical site on each girl once they were separated.
Johns Hopkins has tentatively scheduled a news conference with the medical team for Thursday.