Surgery

Contemporary surgeons have taken the concept of surgery well beyond what their counterparts as little as 100 years ago believed to be their domain. One of the most dramatic types of surgery is fetal therapy on the unborn. The first successful effort to address fetal problems in the womb took place in the early 1960s, with the first prenatal blood transfusion. Effective techniques for human fetal surgical therapy were first performed in the 1980s and are still being developed. Because such surgery presents a risk to the fetus and the mother, surgery on the fetus is performed rarely. Such procedures are only performed if the potential benefit to the fetus is deemed to be great. Successful surgery has been performed on fetuses suffering from certain types of life-threatening hernias and urinary-tract obstructions.

The procedure involves placing the mother under anesthesia and opening the uterus to expose the fetus. Following the surgery, amniotic fluid is replaced with a liquid solution containing antibiotics. The uterus is then stitched closed.