Craniopagus Twins Separated in Ankara After Staged Neurosurgery

Total posterior craniopagus — twins joined at the back of the skull — is among the rarest forms of conjoined twinning. In 2024, 11-month-old sisters Minal and Mirha, born in Pakistan with fused heads and shared blood vessels and some brain tissue, were treated at Ankara Bilkent City Hospital after their family could not obtain separation at home.

A team of about 60 specialists, including Turkish surgeons and London-based pediatric neurosurgeon Prof. Noor ul Owase Jeelani of Great Ormond Street Hospital and the charity Gemini Untwined, planned the work in stages. Plastic surgeons first placed tissue expanders under the scalp so there would be enough skin to close each head after division. Mixed-reality 3D models and navigation guided later dissection of shared veins and reconstruction of separate skulls.

The final separation on July 19, 2024, lasted about 14 hours (some reports describe the overall campaign as stretching over three months). Hospital officials said both girls recovered without the catastrophic deficits that often follow this surgery. They were later able to look at each other face to face and were expected to return to Pakistan to live independently.

Public accounts sometimes attach other names to “miracle” craniopagus cases in Turkey. The documented Ankara posterior-craniopagus separation that matches this hospital, staging, expanders and international team is Minal and Mirha, not a pair publicly recorded as Hasan and Hüseyin.

Source: Ankara Bilkent City Hospital / Turkish Ministry of Health announcements; Gemini Untwined case summary; Daily Sabah, Sky News and Surgery International coverage of the July 2024 Minal and Mirha separation