In twin pregnancies it may happen that the fetuses are each in one placenta (bicorial) or both in the same placenta (monochorial). The latter are at greater risk in many aspects.
In addition to the risks of abortion or premature delivery, it is added that in many cases blood connections can form, which causes the fetuses to transfuse blood.
In 15% of these cases, one fetus donates what it receives and the other receives double, which hurts both, because the donor runs out of blood, does not urinate, does not develop the urinary bladder and becomes small, and The recipient develops a very large bladder, urinates a lot and suffers from heart failure. The transfusive and transfused fetus syndrome, if there is no medical intervention, usually causes the death of both fetuses, so a division of the placenta should be performed using a fetoscopy and a laser, because with this there is a 70% chance of saving at least one and at best the two fetuses.
The problem at the time of performing these interventions is the training of specialists, as the technique, in which they have to coagulate the blood vessels that bind the fetuses by interrupting the flow of blood to function as in a twin pregnancy of two placentas , you need a good specialization.
He Maternal and Child Hospital of Gran Canaria and thanks to the specialization of Orlando Falcón, it has become the second community in our country that divide the placenta of twins at risk of death, which will save about 24 Canarian babies a year.
The first intervention of the insular hospital was carried out last week and after two hours the improvements of the fetuses were appreciated, the bladder was appreciated and the cardiac sufficiency index improved.
It is great news for the Canaries, who previously had to travel to Barcelona for the intervention or were due to cause premature and uncertain birth. Hopefully this technique is extended in all hospitals and can reduce cases of fetal death to zero.
