In a rare incident, a team of doctors in the United States performed a successful brain surgery on a 34-week-old fetus. The surgery was performed to prevent heart failure and brain injury after birth. The news about the in-utero surgery first appeared in the journal Stroke.
The report said that the gestational age of the foetus was only 34 weeks and 2 days and the surgery was important to save the life. The baby girl was born two days post the successful surgery. The doctors performed the surgery to repair a potentially deadly developmental condition. During the surgery, the team of doctors treated an aggressive vascular malformation, called vein of Galen malformation.
The baby girl has been named Denver Coleman. While the girl was born with no birth defects, there are limited complications and she weighs 1.9 kg. The surgery was performed by doctors from Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The team of doctors said that the kid is doing well now, and is not on any medication.
Infant is progressing remarkably well
“In our ongoing clinical trial, we are using ultrasound-guided transuterine embolisation to address the vein of Galen malformation before birth, and in our first treated case, we were thrilled to see that the aggressive decline usually seen after birth simply did not appear,” said lead study author Darren B. Orbach, co-director of the Cerebrovascular Surgery & Interventions Centre at the Boston Children’s Hospital.
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Orbach, who is also an associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, said that the infant is progressing remarkably well. “She is not on any medications, eating normally, gaining weight and is back home. There are no signs of any negative effects on the brain,” Orbach added.
According to the reports, the infant was delivered by induction of vaginal birth two days later due to premature rupture of membranes during the in-utero embolisation.