Journal of Pregnancy and Child Health
Open Access

Research Article

Does a Vanishing Twin Affect Perinatal Outcome?

Kozue Akamine^*, Keiko Mekaru, Chiaki Heshiki, Yukiko Chinen, Tadatugu Kinjyo, Hitoshi Masamoto and Yoichi Aoki

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Graduate School of Medical Science, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan

*Corresponding Author:

Kozue Akamine
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Graduate School of Medical Science
University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan
Tel: +81988951177
E-mail: h088421@med.u-ryukyu.ac.jp

Received date: March 24, 2017; Accepted date: March 27, 2017; Published date: March 31, 2017

Citation: Akamine K, Mekaru K, Heshiki C, Chinen Y, Kinjyo T, et al. (2017) Does a Vanishing Twin Affect Perinatal Outcome? J Preg Child Health 4:320. doi:10.4172/2376-127X.1000320

Copyright: © 2017 Akamine K, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: The impact of vanishing twin (VT) syndrome on obstetric outcome is currently unknown. The aim of this study was to compare obstetric and neonatal outcomes of VT with singleton and twin deliveries after assisted reproduction and to evaluate the impact of VT on pregnancy outcome. Methods: We analyzed 130 births at our hospital between January 2000 and February 2012 that resulted from assisted reproduction. Among these, 96 were singleton, 10 were VT, and 24 were twin deliveries. Vanishing twin was defined as a first-trimester (≤ 12 gestational weeks) embryonic loss of one of the twins. We compared the obstetric and neonatal outcomes of VT with singletons and twins, respectively. Results: The obstetric and neonatal outcomes were similar between VT and singleton deliveries, although there was a trend towards an increased rate of preterm delivery (9.4% vs. 20%, p=0.28), extremely preterm delivery (5.2% vs. 20%, p=0.13), and low birth weight <2500 g (30% vs. 73.3, p=0.023) in the VT group. Outcomes were significantly better in the VT group than in the twin group. The rate of preterm delivery was significantly higher in the twin group than in the VT group (20% vs. 70.8%). Furthermore, birth weight was significantly lower in the twin group than in the VT group (2798 ± 187 vs. 2046 ± 97), and the rate of low birth weight was higher in the twin group than in the VT group (30% vs. 73.3%). Conclusion: Obstetric and neonatal outcome after assisted reproduction may deteriorate according to pregnancy status in the following order: singleton, VT and twin pregnancy.

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