ISLAMABAD: Pakistani conjoined twins Fatima and Mashael were successfully separated in a surgery at King Abdullah Specialist Hospital for Children in King Abdulaziz Medical City for the National Guard in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.

Dr Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, head of the medical team, said the twins were separated successfully after the six-stage surgery that lasted seven hours, Saudi Gazette reported on Sunday.

The medical team consisted of 20 doctors and specialists.

The twins arrived in Riyadh on March 3 after King Salman gave directives to host them with their parents at the medical city to study the possibility of separating them.

Dr Al-Rabeeah said several medical tests had been conducted on the female twins, who were joined at the lower chest and abdomen, and shared one liver.

He had estimated an 80 per cent chance for the success of the operation.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2016