For the first time ever, a team of US doctors have performed a successful brain surgery on an unborn baby with a gestational age of 34 weeks and 2 days. The surgery was necessary to prevent the child’s heart failure and brain injury after birth.
The in-utero surgery, described in the journal Stroke, was done to repair a potentially deadly developmental condition by treating an aggressive vascular malformation, called vein of Galen malformation.
The baby girl Denver Coleman was born two days post-surgery with no birth defects and limited complications at 1.9 kg. She is doing well now, and is not on any medication, said the team from Boston Children's Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, who performed the surgery.
"We are pleased to report that at six weeks, the infant is progressing remarkably well, on no medications, eating normally, gaining weight and is back home. There are no signs of any negative effects on the brain," said lead study author Darren B. Orbach, co-director of the Cerebrovascular Surgery & Interventions Centre at the Boston Children's Hospital.
Due to premature rupture of membranes during the in-utero embolisation, the infant was delivered by induction of vaginal birth two days later.
The newborn was watched in the neonatal intensive care unit for several weeks after birth because of prematurity before being sent home.
During that time, the newborn had a normal neurological exam and showed no strokes, fluid buildup or hemorrhage on brain MRI.
However, the procedure was not without its limitations, said Colin P. Derdeyn, a neurointerventional radiologist at University of Iowa Health Care, who performs VOGM embolisations on neonates and who was not involved with the study.
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