Indian doctors have claimed that they have successfully completed the first round of reconstructive surgery on the skull of a baby, who was suffering from a rare disease that caused her head to swell up to twice its size.

The one-year-old Roona Begum underwent a surgery on Tuesday near New Delhi. The surgery involves shifting and cutting bone and tissue parts and the patient requires one more round of surgery before the surgery is completed. Roona was born with hydrocephalus, which causes cerebrospinal fluid to build up on the brain and doctors had drained the fluid in the previous week in a life-saving operation.

Neurosurgeon Sandeep Vaishya said, "We did the crucial head reconstruction surgery to reduce the size of her head on Tuesday. As of now, there are no complications."

He also said that the baby's condition is shown remarkable improvement following a week of surgeries at a hospital of the Fortis Healthcare group. The baby comes from a village and her parents were too poor to pay for the treatment. Her pictures were published in the remote north-eastern state of Tripura and the hospital decided to offer the treatment for free to the baby.