Mortality, morbidity and 2-years neurodevelopmental prognosis of twin to twin transfusion syndrome after fetoscopic laser therapy: a prospective, 58 patients cohort study.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the morbidity and mortality and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes in children born from a Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) pregnancy treated using laser fetoscopy in Toulouse.

POPULATION AND METHOD

All pregnancies with TTTS treated by laser fetoscopy in our centre were included. Antenatal and postnatal morbidity and neonatal morbidity were identified in the medical records retrospectively. The neurodevelopmental outcome was studied using Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) sent to the parents, an oral interview with the parents and with the child's doctor (last objective neurological examination, rehabilitation needs, learning disabilities).

RESULTS

Seventy-one pregnancies, or 144 foetuses, were included from 2008 to 2014, overall survival at 2 years was 72.9% and the survival of at least one child at 2 years was 91.5%, severe neonatal morbidity was 11.2% of the children, severe brain damage accounted for 3.6% of children admitted to the hospital unit. It was possible to study the neurodevelopmental outcome for 58 children (55.3%), with a corrected age from 24 to 95 months. Five children (8.6%) had severe neurological abnormalities and 17 (29.3%) had moderate neurological abnormalities.

DISCUSSION

The mortality, neonatal morbidity and long-term neurological morbidity of our cohort are higher than those of premature infants (EPIPAGE-2 French cohort), which confirms the severity of this syndrome, and are comparable to those of the TTTS cohorts described in the literature.