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| Figure 1: Circulation through the inter-twin anastomoses. Oxygenated blood travels from the placenta to the pump twin via the umbilical vein (1-2). Most of the deoxygenated blood is returned to the placenta from the pump twin via the umbilical artery (3-4), while some is diverted into the umbilical artery of the acardiac twin via an artero-arterial inter-twin anastomosis (4-5). Doubly deoxygenated blood then travels from the acardiac twin via the umbilical vein to the veno-venous anastomosis (6-7), infusing the oxygenated blood supply of the pump twin with doubly deoxygenated blood (7-1). |
