Successful ablation of acardiac twin with Histoacryl

Abstract

Objective: Acardiac twin occurs in 1:35,000 pregnancies. Several techniques have been described to treat this condition. Some techniques have been suggested as golden standard; however, new are still being tried. Case report: This is a case of a 32-year-old patient who had successful ablation of the acardiac twin with Histoacryl. The diagnosis of the acardiac twin was made in the 11 weeks + 3 weeks of pregnancy. Due to the development of myocardial hypertrophy and pericardial transudate of the pumping fetus, we had performed ablation of the acardiac twin with Histoacryl in the 21 weeks' +5 weeks' gestation. The procedure was uneventful, and the healthy fetus had no signs of distress. In the 33 weeks' +5 weeks' gestation, she had Cesarean section due to distress of the healthy fetus. The female baby was healthy, weighing 2380 g, Apgar score 9/10. The mummified mass of acardiac fetus weighted 300 g. Nine months later, the child is doing well. Conclusion: Histoacryl is suitable for the ablation of an acardiac twin. Further studies are needed to prove the efficacy of this technique.

Keywords

• acardiac twin
• fetal ablation
• occlusion material (Hyalobarrier)