By the CNN Wire Staff
October 17, 2011 — Updated 0149 GMT (0949 HKT)
A file photo taken on September 25, 2011 shows Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud addressing the annual Shura (consultative) Council in Riyadh.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- King Abdullah to have his third back surgery in a year
- He had surgeries last year for herniated disc, blood clot
- He has ruled Saudi Arabia since 2005
(CNN) — Saudi Arabia’s 87-year-old ruler, King Abdullah, arrived Sunday at a Riyadh hospital to undergo his third back surgery within a year, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Surgeons were to tighten a binding connector around his third vertebra, the agency said.
Abdullah last had back surgery in December at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center for a herniated disc and a blood clot that were causing him back pain. He spent several weeks in Morocco undergoing physical therapy.
The king first underwent successful surgery on November 24. He had the follow-up operation to stabilize several vertebrae in his spine.
Abdullah has ruled the oil-rich kingdom since the August 2005 death of his half-brother, King Fahd. But Abdullah ran most of the kingdom’s affairs for a decade before that on behalf of his ailing sibling.
