2023-05-07 19:49:35
For the first time, doctors have successfully operated on the brain of a fetus inside its mother’s womb, to treat a rare vascular anomaly that can be fatal to newborns.
And according to the US news agency “United Press International”, the case is known as “Vein Galleons Malformation” (VOGM), and experts said that the success of the surgery is an “exciting achievement”.
The surgery was performed at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Cerebrovascular Surgery Center on a 34-week-2-day-old fetus that had a 99 percent chance of serious problems following birth.
Experts stressed that it is only a matter of success in a single case, and therefore more research is needed to see if operating on the brain of a fetus before birth is a “good strategy”.
The importance of this surgery is to protect the fetus from the risks of heart failure and stroke following birth.
“If they do have this malformation, regarding 50 to 60 percent of newborns will have problems soon following birth, often two days later,” said Dr. Darren Auerbach of the Center for Cerebrovascular Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital.
VOGM is a rare condition, occurring in only one fetus in 60,000, and is often discovered during routine ultrasounds in late pregnancy.
The condition appears when malformed arteries in the brain make a “wrong connection”. Instead of sending blood to the tiny capillaries that supply the brain and slow blood flow, the arteries connect directly to a larger vein, which drains blood from the brain to the heart.
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