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. "Normally, cases like this would be advised to have an abortion, but we suggested intervention to save the baby's life. As a science teacher, Sirisha courageously accepted the proposal," said pediatric cardiologist Dr. Nageswara Rao, Care Hospital in Banjara Hills.

The first surgery, performed at 25 weeks of pregnancy, failed. At 27 weeks, Dr. Rao and his team of 8 cardiologists and 22 assistants performed another 2.5-hour surgery on October 23 and was successful, reducing the blockage of the aorta by 60%.

Ultrasound image of fetus. Photo: Reuters

“After waiting for the fetus to be in a favorable 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 Dr. 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 operate again on the baby after he is born. "I have waited for 10 long years to do this surgery. We tried to operate on another case three years ago, the operation failed and the baby could not be saved. This time, the baby will be born healthy and then we can operate again 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 on 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.

Leyna Mykaella Gonzalez, 4, from the US, is the first baby in the world to have had a 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 American 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