RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has set a unique record by emerging tops in the world in the number of successful separation of Siamese twins, following operations conducted by the Saudi Program for Separating Siamese Twins. The Saudi program succeeded in conducting the surgery to separate Yemeni Siamese twins, Mawaddah and Rahma last Thursday. The surgery of separating Yemeni Siamese twins Mawaddah and Rahma was the 52th to be carried out in the Kingdom, through which several achievements were made during this operation, the first one being the immediate recovery of the twins after the surgery, which happened for the first time. In another interesting achievement, the twins did not need blood, which is rare. The operation time was shortened from 11 hours to 5 hours. A team of 28 Saudi doctors, specialists, nurses and technicians led by Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, adviser at the Saudi Royal Court and Supervisor General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief), performed the surgery. The process of separating the right twin took place in several stages: anesthesia, preparation, starting the operation, separating the liver and intestines, then reconstructing the organs, and covering. The surgery was carried out in implementation of the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and it was performed at King Abdullah Specialized Children's Hospital (KASCH). According to the Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA), Saudi Arabia witnessed the first separation of Siamese twins in 1990, and since that time, the Kingdom has been known as the best place in the world to perform the surgery of separating Siamese twins. Saudi Arabia was distinguished by this humanitarian initiative due to the efforts provided by the competent authorities and the medical team supervising these surgeries. This is in addition to being unique in the availability of many modern technologies and devices for medical teams to perform surgical operations accurately. And 117 cases of Siamese twins were studied in the Kingdom. In addition, Saudi Arabia has conducted surgeries for Siamese twins from 22 countries spanning 3 continents around the world. The total number of hours of these surgeries for separating Siamese twins in the Kingdom reached about 581 hours, while the longest operation for separating conjoined twins reached 23 and half hours.
