Riyadh: Surgeons in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) on Sunday, July 27, successfully separated Syrian conjoined twins— Celine and Eleen after a complex surgery at King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital (KASCH) in Riyadh.
The one years and five months old twins were conjoined at the lower chest and abdomen, sharing a pericardial membrane and liver, with a possible intestinal connection. Their combined weight is 14 kilograms.
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On December 29, 2024, the twins arrived at King Khalid International Airport onboard a flight from Lebanon via a medical air-evacuation plane.
The surgery, which lasted approximately eight hours, involved 24 consultants, specialists, and technical, nursing, and support staff.
This 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.
Dr Al Rabeeah explained that the twins — born as part of a triplet pregnancy with one healthy sibling — were delivered by cesarean section on February 28, 2024, at Rafic Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, where their refugee family had been residing.
The mother of the Syrian conjoined twins expressed her emotions following the successful separation surgery, saying, “After nearly a year and a half of patience, I saw my daughters in two separate beds.”
This marks the fourth separation surgery for Syrian conjoined twins under the Saudi program.
Over the past 35 years, the team has reviewed 150 cases and successfully separated 65 sets of twins from 27 countries.
