Riyadh, July 27, 2025: Acting on the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Royal Highness Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Conjoined Twins Programme has commenced a complex surgical procedure to separate Syrian conjoined twins Celine and Eleen Abdulmoneim Alshibli.
The separation surgery began this morning at the King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital (KASCH), part of King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh. The medical team is led by Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Supervisor General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) and head of the surgical team.
According to Dr. Al Rabeeah, the twins are refugees born in Lebanon, where their mother delivered triplets—two conjoined girls and a healthy boy—via cesarean section on February 28, 2024. Now aged one year and five months, the conjoined twins have a combined weight of 14 kilograms.
The twins were brought to Saudi Arabia on December 29, 2024, through coordinated efforts by the Kingdom’s ministries of foreign affairs and defense. After thorough medical assessments and consultations, the team determined the twins were joined at the lower chest and abdomen, sharing a pericardium and liver, with a potential intestinal connection.
The highly intricate surgery is expected to take approximately nine hours and will be performed in six stages. It involves a team of 24 consultants and specialists in pediatric surgery, anesthesia, plastic surgery, and other supporting fields, as well as skilled nursing and technical staff.
Dr. Al Rabeeah noted that this marks the fourth operation to separate Syrian conjoined twins and is part of the broader humanitarian mission of the Saudi Conjoined Twins Programme. Over the past 35 years, the programme has studied 150 cases and successfully separated 65 sets of conjoined twins from 27 countries.
