First In-utero Cerebrovascular Surgery Success

In a first-of-its-kind in-utero surgery, researchers have successfully repaired a cerebrovascular malformation, which often leads to heart failure, severe brain injury, or possibly death soon after birth.

The team from Boston Children's Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital used ultrasound guidance to repair the vein of Galen malformation, which causes excessively high blood flow, resulting in both neurologic and cardiac complications. 

The surgery was performed in a fetus at 34 weeks' gestational age, with remarkable results. Since birth, the baby girl, who was identified in-utero as being at high risk of suffering serious complications of the malformation, has required no medication to treat heart failure and no postnatal surgery.

Repeated echocardiograms after birth displayed marked improvement in cardiac output, and brain MRI showed no brain injury and a normal neurologic exam.

"This is incredibly exciting. The hope is that this baby, and others with this condition who receive this in-utero surgery in future, will go on to have a normal life," lead researcher Darren B. Orbach, MD, PhD, commented to theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.

Source: MEDspace