Successful heart surgery for baby in the womb

A 25-year-old woman in Hyderabad (India) has just become the first person to have a doctor perform surgery to treat a heart defect in a fetus still in her womb.

Sirisha was halfway through her pregnancy when the doctor determined that the fetus had a near-complete blockage of the aorta and a leaky mitral valve... "Usually, cases like this would be advised to abort, but we suggested intervention to save the baby's life. As a science teacher, Sirisha courageously accepted the suggestion," said pediatric cardiologist Dr. Nageswara Rao, Care Hospital in Banjara Hills.

The first surgery, performed when the fetus was 25 weeks old, failed. At 27 weeks old, Dr. Rao and his team of eight cardiologists and 22 assistants performed another surgery, lasting 2.5 hours on October 23, and was successful, reducing the blockage of the aorta by 60%.

Ultrasound image of fetus. Photo: Reuters

“After waiting for the foetus to be in a good position, Sirisha and her baby were put under general anesthesia. A needle was inserted into the mother’s abdomen, then into the uterus, into the baby’s chest and finally into the left ventricle,” pediatric cardiologist Sai Leela told The Hindu. The surgical team used a catheter and a small balloon to repair the baby’s heart defect.

Dr Rao said he would perform another surgery on the baby after it is born. "I have waited for 10 long years to do this surgery. We tried another surgery three years ago, which failed and the baby could not be saved. This time, the baby will be born healthy and then we can do another surgery to completely correct the deformity," he said.

Sirisha and her husband Arun (29) have a 20-month-old son and live in Injapur village in Ranga Reddy district. She is 29 weeks pregnant and has fully recovered from the heart surgery she underwent for her unborn child. She hopes to welcome her baby in the third week of December.

Fetal surgery has been performed since 2010 in the world, this is the first time Indian doctors have succeeded in this technique.

Four-year-old Leyna Mykaella Gonzalez from the US is the first baby in the world to undergo successful surgery while still in the womb. In May 2010, her mother, Tammy Gonzalez, underwent surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami to remove a tumor from her fetus' mouth. The case was reported in the US journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

In another case, doctors at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia saved a baby boy's life with heart surgery a month before he was born. A report on the hospital's website said that as of June 6, 2013, 1,000 fetuses had undergone the surgery. Experts also estimate that the total number of fetuses undergoing the surgery worldwide is about 4,000.

According to VnExpress