Brioney Garrett lay flat on a hospital bed, a specially-designed machine firing high-powered ultrasound waves at tiny blood vessels in her placenta. The procedure took about 20 minutes. ‘It was very quick and pretty painless,’ she recalls. Those sound waves sealed the blood vessels causing twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) – a condition that puts identical twins at risk of death in the womb. Without the world-first treatment at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, her daughters Nancy and Margo might not be alive today.
TTTS affects between 10-15% of identical twins that share a placenta, around 300-400 pregnancies each year in the UK. The unbalanced blood flow between babies leaves one dangerously small and the other too large. Excess fluid builds around the larger recipient baby while a dangerous lack of fluid harms the smaller donor. Conventional treatment involves a needle into the womb to drain fluid or seal vessels with a laser. But this non-invasive method – using high-powered sound waves – avoided any incision.
“Pioneering ultrasound treatment saved identical twins Nancy and Margo from deadly twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.”
The trial, reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, included 10 women from the UK and across Europe. Half required further treatment, but 12 of 20 twin babies survived following the procedure. Brioney’s daughters were born healthy at nearly 34 weeks, each weighing just over 3 lbs. Now four years old, Nancy and Margo will soon start school. ‘They are my miracle twins,’ Brioney said. ‘We were in a very dire situation and I don’t forget that. Every day I still count my blessings.’
Prof Christoph Lees, head of fetal medicine at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and professor of obstetrics at Imperial College London, called the research ‘very promising’. He added: ‘If this could work in a fully-fledged study, it…’ The researchers described it as ‘extremely exciting’ to have a non-invasive method to treat the condition, without a needle or telescope into the mother’s tummy. But before the procedure can be offered more widely, larger studies on more pregnant women are needed to confirm its effectiveness.