treatment by fetoscopic laser ablation
from Section 2 - Fetal disease
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
Introduction
Monochorionic twin placentation occurs in 20% of spontaneous twin pregnancies and almost 5% of those are obtained by medically assisted reproduction [1]. Monochorionic diamniotic (McDa) twin fetuses have the unique characteristic of living upon one single placenta. This situation can lead to specific complications including twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) [2, 3], twin-anemia-polycythemia sequence (TAPS) [4, 5], and selective intrauterine growth retardation (s-IUGR) [6]. These complications are likely to explain most of the 6- to 12-fold increase in perinatal mortality in monochorionic twins compared to dichorionic twins [7–10].
TTTS, also called twin oligohydramnios-polyhydramnios sequence (TOPS), complicates around 15% of monochorionic pregnancies irrespective of the mode of conception [7]. It is a hemodynamic, and probably hormonal, discordance secondary to imbalanced blood flows through the vascular anastomoses aforementioned [11–14]. The natural history of untreated TTTS leads to intra- or perinatal death in as many as 90% of cases [15, 16]. Impaired neurological development is reported in up to 50% of survivor-twins as a consequence of prematurity or of the intrauterine fetal demise (IUFD) of the co-twin [17, 18]. It is hence crucial to diagnose and treat TTTS as early as possible and using the best-proven management strategy. In this chapter, we will mainly discuss its treatment options focusing on fetoscopic laser ablation of anastomoses. We will also discuss the benefits and risks associated with this treatment.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.