Surely on more than one occasion you have asked yourself why you have so many tests, why the ultrasounds and why so much control during pregnancy (well, there are people who believe that even more tests should be done). The reason is clear: see that everything is going well and, If something is wrong, decide how to act.
There are times when nature has quite bad milk (nature, chance or something that the father or mother have done wrong) and the fetus has some problem or malformation that requires rapid intervention. So fast that if it had to be done at birth it would probably be too late. In these cases it is indicated a fetoscopy, which is the surgery of the fetus while still in the womb. Fetoscopy? What does it consist of? When is it indicated?
What does fetoscopy consist of
Is the operation of a fetus, umbilical cord or placenta, through the mother's belly, because she has a disease or malformation that must be resolved as soon as possible. Fetoscopy consists of making a small incision in the maternal tummy to, through it and the uterus, introduce a probe (the scoper) that contains various tools at the tip in order to be able to do the necessary intervention in that way (they have light, camera, a channel to do biopsies and the necessary tools to intervene).
When is it indicated?
The fetoscopy It has its risks, so it is indicated only in those cases that are necessary. If waiting for birth can be dangerous because the fetus could die before, or if by then the sequels may be too important and can be avoided or minimized by intervening earlier, it is operated in this way.
As we read in Consumer, the circumstances that make a fetoscopy are indicated are:
- Fetofetal Transfusion Syndrome: It happens when there is a pregnancy of twins and the two share the same placenta. In some of these pregnancies there is an imbalance in blood flow and one of them becomes a donor of the other. If this happens, the mortality rate is very high, between 80 and 100%. Thanks to fetoscopy the situation is reversed and the survival rate is 75 to 90%.
- Delayed intrauterine growth (CIR): In the same type of pregnancy, of twins who share placenta, it may happen that only one of the babies develops well. Fetoscopy increases the risk of death of the baby that has not developed well, but increases the chances that the baby who has benefited from the placenta is born without complications.
- Lung diseases of the baby: in case of pathologies of the respiratory system that can make it difficult to breathe the baby at birth, such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia, fetal hydrothorax and cysts or pulmonary masses.
- Urinary obstruction: Some fetuses have a blocked urethra. If this malformation occurs very soon there is a very high risk that the fetus dies. With fetoscopy you can save the lives of all these babies.
- Other diseases: There are other situations that may require a fetoscopy, not contemplated for being extraordinary. In case of fetal tumors, congenital heart disease or other unexpected situations, a fetoscopy may be performed to try to solve the problem and save the fetus's life. Here we tell you, for example, the intervention that they did to a baby, before being born, with which they managed to remove a giant tumor that he had in the neck.
But it has risks, doesn't it?
Yes, as we have already mentioned, intervening with the fetus has risks such as the birth is premature (between 10 and 30% of babies are born before week 32), which the bag is broken early or there is an abortion (between 5 and 10% of cases) or that detach the placenta (1% of interventions). These are important risks, but of course, we must start from the fact that doing nothing is also a very important risk, probably greater than that of carrying out the intervention.
