For the first time in the world, a team of doctors performed surgery on an unborn fetus while it was still inside the womb. This one-of-a-kind surgery was published in the peer-reviewed journal Stroke last week.
The doctors performed this unique procedure to repair a malformed blood vessel in the fetus’s brain. According to media reports, the procedure was done while the woman was pregnant at 34 weeks.
The study that documented this procedure revealed that the baby, born in mid-March, was discharged from the hospital a few weeks after birth and has not required any medications or other treatments since then.
Reportedly, the surgery was performed as a part of an ongoing clinical trial. According to the study, the objective of the trial is to find a new way of treating the vein of Galen malformation(opens in new tab) (VOGM) which is a rare abnormality that affects the blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood from the heart to the brain.
According to health experts, in this rare medical anomaly, the arteries dump blood into veins at the base of the brain, and this blood flows at a high pressure.
VOGM affects an estimated 1 in 60,000 births, according to a statement from the American Heart Association (AHA).
As per current protocols, the standard treatments take place after the child is born and the procedure includes blocking off the artery-to-vein connections within the malformation. However, it is highly likely that it can be too late to prevent disabling or life-threatening brain damage.
In order to develop a better and safer alternative, these doctors from the Boston Children’s Hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston launched a trial to treat VOGM sooner, while the fetus is still in the womb. According to the surgeons, this method can help in reducing the aggressive blood flow through the VOGM.
An estimated 20 babies, in total will be included this trial and the recently treated baby was the first to undergo the procedure. The doctors also emphasised that the newborn did not require any cardiovascular support or surgery after birth but was monitored in the neonatal intensive care unit for several weeks before discharge.
