Doctors perform first-ever life saving brain surgery on baby in womb

Doctors perform first-ever life saving brain surgery on baby in womb. 

“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”.

The baby was diagnosed with vein of Galen malformation at 30 weeks. Children born with the condition have a 30 percent chance of dying before age 11.

The condition — which affects one in 60,000 babies — occurs when arteries in the brain drain blood directly into the veins instead of capillaries. This floods the heart with blood and could lead to dangerously high blood pressure.

“In our ongoing clinical trial, we are using ultrasound-guided transuterine embolization 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,” Orbach added.

Researchers and the Food and Drug Administration are working together to test the safety and effectiveness of the surgery through trials with the hopes of expanding use.

The baby, Denver Coleman, was born two days post-op with no birth defects and limited complications at 4.2 pounds, which is light for a newborn. Most babies are born full-term at six to nine pounds, according to the American Pregnancy Association.

“I heard her cry for the first time and that just, I – I can’t even put into words how I felt at that moment,” Kenyatta told CNN. “It was just, you know, the most beautiful moment being able to hold her, gaze up on her and then hear her cry.”

“I gave her a kiss and she was just making little baby noises and stuff,” Derek said. “That was all I needed right there.” The operation, performed by doctors in Boston, was performed by slicing into the pregnant woman’s abdomen and using an ultrasound to identify the artery and guide the surgery.

The woman gave birth to a healthy child two days later, and he was born without birth defects. Researchers are working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to perform trials on this surgery’s safety and effectiveness, hoping to expand use.

‘The fetal intervention team at Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have successfully devised another in utero procedure that may be very impactful,’ Dr Gary Satou, a cardiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved in the research, said. 

The surgery was documented in a case study published Wednesday in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke. 

Doctors identified the malformation in a woman who was 34 weeks into pregnancy.