Saudi medical team separates Filipino conjoined twins in 7-hour operation
Contrary to the usual scene of coming out of the operating room lying in heavily equipped medical beds, Filipino conjoined twins Akiza and Aisha were seen resting on the shoulders of hospital staff after they were successfully separated in a seven-hour-long surgery by a Saudi medical team at Riyadh’s King Abdulaziz Medical City.
The head of the medical and surgical team, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, confirmed that the condition of the twins was stable after the five-stage operation with the participation of 23 doctors and nursing and technical staff.
The team included specialists in anesthesia, pediatric surgery, plastic surgery, and other supporting specializations, as well as 10 distinguished gynecologists at King Abdullah Specialist Hospital for Children in King Abdulaziz Medical City under the Ministry of the National Guard.
The separation surgery was carried out in implementation of the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister.
Akiza and Aisha, aged six months, arrived in Saudi Arabia on May 5, 2024, and were admitted to the hospital. Preliminary examinations revealed that the twins were joined at the lower chest and abdomen and they shared liver and possibly intestines, but each of them had separate upper and lower limbs.
Multiple tests and precise examinations were carried out to verify the possibility of separating them, and after several meetings, the medical team decided to perform the surgery.
This was the second operation performed on Filipino conjoined twins, while it was the 61st in a series of operations to separate conjoined twins performed in Saudi Arabia. The medical team had evaluated a total of 136 cases from 26 countries in the past 33 years.
