phase surgery to separate Moroccan conjoined twins Safa and Marwa will be performed Saturday by a Saudi medical team at the National Guard King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Riyadh (KAMC- Riyadh) There is a 40 percent risk due to the condition of the heart of Marwa who has severe congenital heart disease, said Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, chief executive officer and head of the 24-member Multidisciplinary Surgical Team that will perform the surgery. The operation, scheduled to start at 7 A.M., is expected to last for approximately 10 hours, Dr. Al-Rabeeah said. The multidisciplinary team met on several occasions to review the status of the twins and decided at its last meeting on Wednesday to perform the separation despite the 40% risk. The Siamese twins came from Morocco on April 4 on a special Saudi Medical evacuation flight following the instructions of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. Investigations have shown that the twins are joined at the lower chest and abdomen and share a liver and maybe part of the bowel. Dr. Al-Rabeeah team has so far performed 18 successful separation operations for conjoined twins from several countries. KAMC- Riyadh is internationally renowned for such intricate surgery. __
