RIYADH: Moroccan conjoined twins Safa and Marwa were successfully separated after a 10-hour operation that ended here yesterday afternoon.
“This is yet another success story for Saudi Arabia as far as conjoined twins are concerned,” said Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, head of the surgical team and CEO of King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC).
“The babies, Safa and Marwa, were placed in separate beds for the first time in their lives at 3 p.m. yesterday.”
He pointed out that the four-month-old twins have been transferred to the intensive care unit, where they are now showing vital signs of health and stability.
“Obviously all of us are extremely excited at how things went,” said Al-Rabeeah, who led the operation.
He said the next 48 hours would be critical for the girls as all depends on how they recover and respond to treatment. But for the most part, the beaming doctors said they were optimistic about the twins’ prognosis and immediate recovery.
“We separated the babies before the scheduled time since we were able to complete the seven-phase surgery without any problem,” Al-Rabeeah added.
The medical team expects the two girls to recover completely “and will go on to lead very, very normal lives,” said Al-Rabeeah.
The girls were born facing each other and fused from the lower chest to the bowel and liver. The marathon surgical procedure began at 8 a.m. The girls were separated and the surgical team reconstructed their tiny bodies after dividing a few shared organs.
Safa and Marwa were wheeled out of the operating room and into the intensive care unit at 4:30 p.m. The girls presented a particular challenge in separation surgery because they shared many vital systems.
Only a few hundred pairs of such conjoined twins are born each year worldwide.
As the operation got under way, doctors made an incision at the breastbone, and then moved on to the complicated business of dividing the organs.
Al-Rabeeah said doctors separated the liver, split the diaphragm and separated parts of the gastro-intestinal system, while an eco cardiogram on Marwa was done.
The operation was broadcast live to millions of viewers across the Kingdom and the Arab world via satellite and the Internet.
Al-Rabeeah said some procedures would be carried out to fill the scissor marks covering a large part of the infants’ bodies, and all the signs of surgery would disappear after a few years.
The focus of the operation was shared veins and organs at the lower parts of the twins’ abdomen and genital parts, doctors said.
To date, 14 pairs of conjoined twins have been successfully separated in the Kingdom.
