Two sets of conjoined twins are in Saudi Arabia for medical teams to separate them. Moroccan conjoined girls Safa and Marwa, Iraqi conjoined boys Iyad and Ziad, arrived at King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Riyadh for separation surgery by a multidisciplinary medical team headed by Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabea. A Special Air Ambulance ordered by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz flew one-month-old Iyad and Ziad into Riyadh Air Base Monday evening. Safa and Marwa had already arrived in Riyadh on Friday. King Abdullah had also ordered the Special Air Ambulance to fly the Morrocan twins from Casablanca to Riyadh last week. They were immediately admitted to special wards for preliminary clinical tests that will decide the possibilities of successful separation later. Khalid Anezi, media relations supervisor at the National Guard Health Affairs, told the Saudi Gazette that Safa and Marwa are conjoined at the abdomen, adding that the girls are in stable condition. However, the medical team will reveal what organs are required to be separated only after clinical testing. Iyad and Ziad, from Mosul, Iraq, are conjoined at the chest and abdomen. After the successful separation of Omani twins, also named Safa and Marwa, who were conjoined at their heads in October last year, the prospective surgical separations of the Moroccan and Iraqi twins will number 19 and 20, respectively, in the Kingdom. The separation of conjoined twins was carried out after directives by King Abdullah. The Omani twins were successfully separated at King Abdul Aziz Medical City on October 27, 2007 in an operation that lasted 18 hours. The operation was carried out in seven phases by a 22-member team of health experts in neurosurgery, anesthesia, plastic surgery, pediatric surgery and nursing. Dr. Al-Rabea, head of the multidisciplinary team, had said that it was the first time special and delicate equipment, such as a neuro-navigator, a volume dextro-scope, a mobile CT scanner and a special anesthesia support table were used in the separation of the Omani twins. All the medical equipment were designed and manufactured for the first time in the world at King Abdul Aziz Medical City. Other conjoined twins that were separated at King Abdul Aziz Medical City included three sets from Saudi Arabia, two sets each from Egypt and Sudan, and one each from Cameroon, Morocco, Iraq, Poland, the Philippines and Malaysia. __
