Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome neurodevelopmental follow-up study (neurodevelopmental outcomes for children whose twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome was treated with placental laser photocoagulation)

Background Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) is a serious complication of 10–15% of twin or triplet pregnancies in which multiple fetuses share a single placenta. Communicating placental vessels allow one fetus (the donor) to pump blood to the other (the recipient). Mortality rates without intervention are high, approaching 100% in some series, with fetal deaths usually due to cardiac failure. Surgical correction using laser photocoagulation of communicating placental vessels was developed in the 1980s and refined in the 1990s. Since it was introduced in Victoria in 2006, laser surgery has been performed in approximately 120 pregnancies. Survival of one or more fetuses following laser surgery is currently > 90%, however the neurodevelopmental outcomes for survivors remain incompletely understood. Prior to laser therapy, at least one in five survivors of TTTS had serious adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes (usually cerebral palsy). Current estimates of neurological impairment among survivors following laser surgery vary from 4 to 31% and long-term follow-up data are limited.