Prenatal surgery improves conditions for children with spina bifida, study finds

The surgery increased the number of children who were able to walk unassisted by the age of 30 months and decreased the number who had to have shunts implanted to remove water from the brain.

Prenatal surgery for the most severe form of the birth defect spina bifida doubled the number of children who were able to walk unassisted by the age of 30 months and halved the percentage who had to have shunts implanted after birth to remove water from the brain, researchers reported Wednesday.

The surgery, however, presented some risks to both children and mothers: Infants were more likely to be born preterm and mothers suffered a thinning of the uterine wall that would require all future births to end in a caesarean section.

The prenatal surgery is "certainly not a cure," said Dr. N. Scott Adzick of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who led the study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. But on balance, he added, "we believe it is now the standard of care" for the condition. [...]

Full article at latimes.com

 

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