Angelica and Angelina Sabuco underwent more than 10 hours of operations in California. A team of 15 to 20 doctors performed the surgery. The twins are now said to be doing well.
The two-year-olds had fused livers, diaphragms, breast bones and abdominal walls.
But, crucially, they had separate hearts, brains, kidneys, stomachs and intestines.
Dr Gary Hartman, who led the surgery at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, said the girls could go home to San Jose after a recovery period of two weeks.
Dr Hartman, who has separated a total of six sets of conjoined twins over his career, said: “Once they’re healed, one would really expect them to be able to lead healthy lives.”
The pair’s mother, Ginady Sabuco, said in a statement: “This is a dream come true. Words cannot express how we feel.”
It is reported that the girls moved with their mother to the US last year.
Though they had apparently coped remarkably well in spite of their face-to-face orientation, Hartman said that staying connected would have come with long-term health risks, including greater damage to their skeletal and muscular structure.
