Riyadh: A team of doctors in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Thursday successfully separated Iraqi conjoined twins in an 11-hour surgery, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The Iraqi twins— Ali and Omer, had been joined from the lower chest and abdomen, and shared the liver, bile ducts and intestines.
The surgery was conducted on Thursday morning in six stages, in which 27 specialists, nurses and technicians participated in King Abdullah Specialist Hospital for children in Riyadh.
“This operation comes in implementation of the generous directives of the Saudi leadership,” said Dr Al Rabeeah, an adviser at the Royal Court and supervisor general of the centre.
Parents of Omar and Ali expressed their appreciation and gratitude to King Salman and the Crown Prince, as well as the medical and surgical team involved in the surgery.
The separation procedure had been planned since the twins’ arrival in Saudi Arabia in September 2022. Their age was not disclosed.
This surgery is the fifth case of separating conjoined twins from Iraq, and it is the 54th case within the Saudi program for separating conjoined twins since 1990, and the program has studied and evaluated 127 cases from 23 countries.
