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Riyadh: A surgery to separate the conjoined Cameroonian Siamese twins Pheinbom and Shevoboh has been completed successfully at the Riyadh-based King Abdul Aziz Medical City of the Saudi Arabian National Guard on Saturday.
The separated twins have been transferred to Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (Picu), said the medical team who conducted the operation.
The operation was conduced by Dr Abdullah Al Rabee'ah, a Saudi paediatric surgeon and an expert in Siamese operations.
Though the medical team had encountered some problems during the operation, it was able to reduce the time previously set for the operation from 18 to 16 hours, Dr Al Rabee'ah said.
The decision to separate the twins was taken after a number of important developments like the twins' reaching an ideal weight of 9.5 kg, Dr Al Rabee'ah, director general of the National Guard health affairs, said earlier.
Separated to live
The surgery to separate Pheinbom and Shevoboh passed 10 phases, including anaesthesia, preparing and planning for skin grafting, separation of the chest, liver, bowel, urinary tracts, genitals, joined lower extremities, pelvis and reconstruction of organs. Speaking to reporters after the operation, Dr Al Rabee'ah said the chest, liver and bowel were separated without any complications.
He pointed out that the twins shared the pericardium (a double-walled sac that contains the heart and the roots of the major blood vessels) and the liver, a complicated case, but the medical team was able to perform the surgery successfully.
He noted that the shared colon was separated successfully and the proximal part given to Shevoboh and the distal colon given to Pheinbom. Shevoboh also got the shared small bowel. Now each twin has enough small bowels to survive, he added.
Artificial leg
Three consultants, who took part in the operation, said the twins have been sharing a leg, which was removed, and in future each can have an artificial leg as right now they have one leg each.
Speaking to the press following the successful surgical operation, Dr Sa'ad Al Mehrej, consultant orthopaedic, Dr Ziyal Nagshabandi, consultant urologist, and Dr Abdullah Al Namlah, consultant cosmetic surgeon, noted that the case of the Cameroonian Siamese twins is similar to five other conjoined twins who were separated at King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Riyadh.
"Some of these twins are now outstanding students," they added.
The Cameroonian twins were transferred to Riyadh at the expense of King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz.
So far, and within the framework of Kingdom of Humanity project for the separation of Siamese twins in Saudi Arabia, 12 twins from different nationalities have been separated in the past 17 years.
The lengthy process to ensure life
More than 65 experts from various medical and health specialties, including more than 10 Saudi female doctors and nurses, were part of the medical team.
The 13-month-old female twins were conjoined at the breast and abdomen and shared intestines, liver, anus and urinary system.
The surgery of the Cameroonian Siamese twins, Pheinbom and Shevoboh, passed 10 phases, including anaesthesia, preparing and planning for skin grafting, separation of the chest, liver and bowel, urinary tracts, genitals, joined lower extremities, pelvis and reconstruction of organs.
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