Siamese Twins Separated in Genoa in 12-Hour Surgery

Fifty professionals, 12 hours of operating room for a complicated and delicate surgical intervention necessary for the separation of two conjoined twins, two girls born in Burkina Faso in December 2024 and joined in the thoracic and abdominal region. It happened at the Giannina Gaslini Institute in Genoa.

The girls, who shared a liver and part of the pericardium, arrived in Italy on May 20 thanks to the Una Voce per Padre Pio association, as part of the humanitarian health program activated in collaboration with Gaslini. The case was followed in every phase thanks to the co-financing of the Patrons of the World's Children Hospitals association and the Liguria Region, as part of the national legislation for highly specialized health care for foreign citizens in fragile conditions.

"Gaslini took charge of the girls starting with their transport from Malpensa to Genoa. After a careful phase of multidisciplinary study, clinical simulations and logistical planning, the operation took place on June 6 and lasted over 12 hours. More than 50 professionals were involved, including doctors, nurses, technicians and social health workers from Gaslini, together with external experts in liver surgery and reconstructive plastic surgery, as Raffaele Spiazzi, health director of Gaslini, explained: "the mission of an institution like ours is to seek out the best skills to make them available to our children in an environment built to their measure and in complex operations like this, the quality of the collaboration networks of Gaslini, combined with the quality of our professionals, can really make the difference".