Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate prenatal and postnatal growth of twins with twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) after intrauterine laser coagulation.
Study design: The weight and length of 54 sets of twins with severe TTTS surviving intrauterine laser coagulation at the intervention (median 20+4 weeks), at birth (median 34+3 weeks) and on the occasion of neurodevelopmental follow-up (median age 3 years 10 months) were investigated. All data were converted to Z scores, and groups were compared by two-tailed paired t test.
Results: At all time points, donors are significantly lighter than recipients (p<0.001). After laser treatment the weight Z score of donors until birth remains unchanged (p=0.76), whereas recipients lose weight significantly (p<0.01). Postnatally, both donors and recipients show catch-up growth.
Conclusion: Intrauterine laser coagulation stops growth acceleration in recipients that leads to a decrease in intertwin discordance. After birth, significant catch-up growth was observed for the donor group (p<0.001).