The Children’s and Women’s Hospital “Dr. Alberto Lopez Hermosa witnessed a milestone for specialty medicine in San Luis Potosí, successfully performing the first fetal endoscopic surgery for diagnosis of diaphragmatic hernia to a fetus with 28 weeks developing inside the womb of a 21-year-old mother.
This therapeutic intervention was carried out by experts in fetal treatment of Association to Help Children in Critical Condition (ADANEC), from the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, as well as by doctors from the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Potosino Hospital.
About the procedure
According to the specialists who participated in this delicate procedure, it consists of fetoscopic balloon tracheal occlusion (OT); that is, said balloon is placed in the trachea of the fetus preventing the exit of the liquid tracheo-bronchialwhich causes accelerated lung growth through direct mechanical stimulation and secretion of growth factors.
According to estimates by international organizations, this type of procedure provides an increase in the probability of survival between 25 and 50%..
In that sense, the patient’s little boy had a chance of 30% subsistence without the treatment that was applied, leaving aside the cost that an operation of this type would have in a private institution.
Finally, the medical report from the Children’s and Women’s Hospital reported that after treatment, strict surveillance will be maintained so that in the week 34 or 35 the balloon is removed, by means of the same procedure and proceed to intervention by pediatric surgery.