Monochorionic twins

About

Monochorionic twins are identical twins who share a single placenta during pregnancy. This shared placental structure can lead to serious complications, most notably twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), a condition where abnormal blood vessel connections cause unequal blood distribution between the fetuses, resulting in high risks of fetal loss and perinatal death. The primary treatment for TTTS is fetoscopic laser surgery, a minimally invasive procedure that coagulates the problematic placental vessels. This clinical context has become an important driver of innovation in medical robotics and AI, motivating the development of robotic-assisted surgical platforms and deep learning-based vision systems to support surgeons during these complex interventions. Researchers are applying techniques such as monocular pose estimation to help robots navigate and map the placental surface within the confined fetoscopic environment. Understanding monochorionic twin pathology is therefore essential for engineers and AI practitioners designing collaborative robotic systems, intelligent surgical guidance tools, and simulation platforms aimed at improving outcomes in high-risk fetal medicine.