Conjoined twin babies who shared digestive system separated after pioneering nine-hour operation

Two conjoined twin babies who shared a digestive system have been separated after surgeons completed a pioneering nine-hour operation.

Doctors originally gave twins Abdullah and Abdulrahman a 60-70% chance of survival before they went under the knife.

The pair shared bowels, pelvic bones and urinary systems and were completely dependent on each other's bodies.

The difficult operation - which had 9 stages - was carried out by a team of surgeons in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

Yesterday they were being cared for in the paediatric intensive care unit at the hospital.

Both of the now separated babies were reportedly doing very well.

The conjoined twins, who are from the Republic of Yemen, were taken to Saudi Arabia to be operated on at the King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh.

A hospital spokesperson said: "The bowels needed to be separated as well as their urinary systems and then the pelvic bones.

"When they were separated they were then divided into two teams to reconstruct the twins."

This separation is the 35th in a series of surgeries performed on conoined twins in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 1990.

Saudi Arabia has a team of top surgeons who have treated 65 twins from 18 countries across the globe.