Healthy twins born following fetal surgery at Riley

Ashley Slauter and her husband, Cameron, are immensely grateful for the care they received at Riley Hospital for Children. Learning she was pregnant was the first of several surprises for the couple who discovered they would not only soon welcome twins but those babies would be diagnosed with Twin Anemia Polycythemia Syndrome (TAPS), a rare condition in monochorionic twins.

After moving to Indianapolis from St. Louis, the pair found confidence and care at Riley's Maternal Fetal Medicine and specifically Dr. Hiba Mustafa and her team. An 18-week ultrasound confirmed the TAPS diagnosis which quickly led to a procedure for Ashley and her babies.

"Found out on a Friday afternoon, surgery on Monday morning," Slauter said. "Obviously there's a level of urgency with that, but at the same time we're just really learning what's going on and what this really was. And yeah, kind of before we really knew it, we were getting it resolved."

Dr. Mustafa explained the importance of correcting this complication.

"Twin Anemia Polycythemia Sequence, known as TAPS, is basically a complication that can happen in twins who share a placenta or what is known as monochorionic twins," Dr. Mustafa said. "Almost all these twins, on the surface of the placenta, the vessels, some of the vessels, connect. What we end up having is one baby that's anemic or one baby that's polycythemic, or having extra blood. If that condition worsens or stays there, that might result in complications. The most serious complication that can happen is actually losing one or both of them."

Dr. Mustafa said Slauter's case ultimately led to a decision to undergo laser surgery.

"The way we do it is, we use something called a fetoscope," Dr. Mustafa explained. "It's kind of like a small camera that goes into the uterus and then we try to find through that camera, those vessel connections that I mentioned between both twins on the surface of the placenta. Then we pass a laser fiber, and we try to burn all these connections to artificially separate the placenta into two placentas. That will hopefully resolve that imbalance share."

The procedure was successful for the Slauter family. The condition was resolved and seventeen weeks later, their baby boys were born.

"Not all kiddos diagnosed with TAPS have the story that we do, and I think a lot of the reason why our story is so happy is because of early intervention and the great team at Riley," Slauter said.