First-ever successful brain surgery on unborn baby performed by US doctors

For the first time, researchers performed a successful in-utero surgery to repair a potentially deadly developmental condition by treating an aggressive vascular malformation, called vein of Galen malformation, in a fetus’s brain before birth, according to new research published in Stroke, the peer-reviewed flagship journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.

Vein of Galen malformation (VOGM) is a rare prenatal condition in which arteries bringing high-flow, high-pressure blood to the brain from the heart connect directly with one of the main collecting veins deep at the base of the brain, rather than to capillaries that are necessary to slow blood flow and deliver oxygen to surrounding brain tissue. Due to changes in the infant’s vascular physiology during and after the birth process, the high flow in the malformation has an even more serious effect on the heart and brain after birth, putting enormous pressure on the newborn’s heart and lungs. This may lead to pulmonary hypertension, heart failure or other potentially life-threatening conditions. VOGM is most often first seen on a prenatal ultrasound and is definitively diagnosed by MRI during the late second or third trimester of pregnancy.

Reference:

Darren B. Orbach, Louise E. Wilkins-Haug, Carol B. Benson, Wayne Tworetzky, Shivani D. Rangwala, Stephanie H. Guseh, Nicole K. Gately, Jeffrey N. Stout, Arielle Mizrahi-Arnaud and Alfred P., Published 4 May 2023, https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.123.043421