No evidence of brain damage for Bangladeshi conjoined twins

CANBERRA, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi conjoined twins Trishna and Krishna are showing no signs of brain damage after their 27-hour head separation.

On Wednesday, chief surgeon Leo Donnan said the chance of the sisters coming out of the procedure unscathed was still just 25 percent, the Australian Associated Press reports Wednesday.

"That was always a long-term prognosis and a long-term view, not just from the surgery that was performed yesterday," he said.

"We have still got many unknown things that will need to be addressed related to how well they recover from the surgery and how their bodies adapt to the separation."

Associate Professor Donnan said there was currently no evidence the girls suffered any brain damage.

But he said apart from the risk of infection, the girls' bodies needed to adjust to operating independently.

"They both will have issues with their kidneys and with other organs as well," he said.

"There is a whole lot of changes that will occur over the next couple of weeks, even into months, and we really don't know how well they will tolerate those."

Australian surgeons at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne began the meticulous procedure at 8.30 am local time on Monday. Surgeons had separated the twins 27 hours later and they were wheeled out of the operating theater and into intensive care at four pm local time on Tuesday. The twins aged two years and 11 months.