RIYADH: A rehearsal for the separation of the Egyptian conjoined twins Hassan and Mahmoud took place under the supervision of Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah at the King Abdul Aziz Medical City Wednesday evening.
Al-Rabeeah, head of the multidisciplinary team, reviewed the operation plan and conducted a mock surgery with the team members.
“We are comfortable with the plan and are fully prepared with the morale being very high,” Al-Rabeeah said, adding that the chance of success is 70 percent according to the clinical tests conducted during the past two weeks.
The tests were conducted under the supervision of Al-Rabeeah and the final decision to go ahead with the surgery was made at a special meeting chaired by him on Saturday.
The parents were present at the operation theater where the chief surgeon explained the procedures that would be adopted during the 15-hour surgery. The whole process will be done in eight phases.
Al-Rabeeah, who was the chief executive officer of KAMC until he was named the minister of health in a Cabinet reshuffle early this month, vowed to continue his contribution toward separation surgeries.
Al-Rabeeah performed the first separation surgery in the Kingdom in December 1990 at Riyadh’s King Faisal Specialist Hospital.
The operation, which was successful, was performed on Saudi twin girls joined at the stomach.
Since then 13 sets of conjoined twins have been successfully separated at KAMC.
