Riyadh: A team of doctors and specialists have started a 16-hour surgery to separate a Tanzanian conjoined twins at King Abdullah Specialized Children’s Hospital (KASCH) in Riyadh on Thursday, October 5, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The Tanzanian twins— Hassan and Hussein — are conjoined in the lower chest, abdomen, pelvis, liver, urinary tract, intestines. They also have only one reproductive organ.
The two-year-old twins came from the city of Dar es Salaam of Tanzania on August 23, weighing a total of 13.5 kilograms.
The surgery comes following implementation of the directives of the custodian of the two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and is supervised by the head of the medical team Dr Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah.
The surgery is expected to take 16 hours and will be performed over nine phases with a team of 35 doctors, specialists, and technical and nursing staff.
Dr Al Rabeeah noted that, “The process of separating the Tanzanian Siamese twins, Hassan and Hussein, is complicated. We are optimistic about recording another success for the Kingdom.”
Under the Saudi Conjoined Twins Programme, KSRelief has so far sponsored operations to separate 58 children and studied 133 cases of conjoined twins from 24 countries.
