Robotic Surgery Could Fix Birth Defects Within The Womb

Robotic Surgery Could Fix Birth Defects Within The Womb. Image courtesy rawstory.com

Robotic surgery could fix birth defects within the womb, specifically spina bifida. The surgery will also target fetuses with twin-twin transfusion syndrome.

Worldwide spina bifida affects one in 2,500 newborns, who are born with an underdeveloped spine. The spinal cord is exposed in the womb due to a lesion on the back. It often leads to many learning disabilities and even death in some cases.

The twin-twin transfusion syndrome is where unequal amounts of blood passes between twins, who share a placenta and fetal lower urinary tract obstruction. This keep the babies from being able to urinate in the womb causing the bladder to become large and swollen.

The robotic technology is reportedly a small robotic arm. Surgery for spina bifida is often performed a little too late or when the unfortunate symptoms have already damaged the child.

The revolutionary surgery is only performed in limited areas of the world. Specialist teams have to be present in order for the surgery to be performed.

UCL Center for Medical Image Computing, Professor Sebastien Ourselin says, “Most birth defects can be prevented if we can intervene early. But currently, surgical delivery systems are not available and operating on babies in the womb is reversed for just a handful of the most severe defects as risks are too high.”

The $17 million dollar project is funded by the Wellcome Trust and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The device takes 3D images with its photoacoustic camera. It helps better service the robotic arm, which places gels and patches on the gap on the fetus with spina bifida.

The surgery has to be done within the first 26 weeks of pregnancy, to be as safe as possible. There are dangerous side effects and many mothers have declined to have the surgery. Pre-term labor is also a fearful risk for mothers. Ourselin would prefer mothers do the surgery no later than 16 weeks to be even safer.

“We want to go in at 16 weeks to provide the greatest benefits to patients and no one is doing this yet,” said Ourselin. “The most important thing is to reduce the invasiveness of the procedures as you want to avoid causing pre-term labor. If we can make this possible, we want to expand treatment to be possible for all diseases which are already present at birth.”

Robotic Surgery Could Fix Birth Defects Within The Womb