Chinese surgeons on Thursday successfully separated the country's youngest pair of conjoined twins.

Success: Two baby girls whose bodies were joined together recover after being separated in an operation 27 days after their birth at a hospital in Fujian Province yesterday. They are the youngest connected babies to survive such an operation in China.

The sisters from southeastern China's Fujian Province weighed five kilograms and were connected from abdomen to pubis. They shared alimentary canal, urinary system and genital system.

"They are the youngest twins to go through such an operation," said Li Dumiao, chief surgeon of the pediatric department of the No. 1 Hospital affiliated to the Fujian Medical University, where the operation was performed.

Surnamed Chen, the girls are from a family in Nanping City of Fujian. Doctors from the hospital donated 5,000 yuan for the girls' treatment.

Conjoined twins occur among every 50,000 to 100,000 births, and the separation surgery is complicated and risky.

The twins are under close surveillance in an intensive care unit. They still face post-surgery risks, such as infections.

In July, conjoined twins Chen Jingni and Hu Jingxuan were surgically separated in Shanghai. Jingxuan died from organ failure on July 10 while Jingni returned home on Aug. 9.

Doctors operate on two baby girls whose bodies were joined together at a hospital in Fujian Province November 30.

Two baby girls whose bodies were joined together are under intensive care after their separation operation at a hospital in Fujian Province November 30.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily December 1, 2006)