SOCIETY
Prenatal surgery performed at Azerbaijan’s Medical University
Baku, October 17, AZERTAC
A successful prenatal surgery has been performed at the Training and Surgical Clinic of the Azerbaijan’s Medical University. The surgery was considered necessary due to the abnormal accumulation of fluid in a baby’s chest cavity. In an interview to AZERTAC, Head of the department of gynecology Turab Janbakhyshov described the baby's present condition as normal. He said the child's mother came to the clinic when she was 7 months pregnant. The examination of the woman revealed fluid in the chest cavity around the heart and lungs of her child, which prevented the normal functioning of heart. As a result of the timely prenatal operation the child was born without any abnormalities in his heart and lungs. Minor problems related to heart functioning have been eliminated. At the moment the baby is under the supervision of physicians.
Operating on a baby before birth may seem like science fiction, but prenatal surgery is becoming more and more common in special pediatric programs throughout the world. Since prenatal surgery was first pioneered in the 1980s, it's become an important way to correct certain birth defects that could be severe (and in some cases fatal) if babies were born with them unrepaired. Prenatal surgery (also called fetal surgery or fetal intervention) most often is done to correct serious problems that can't wait to be fixed, like certain heart defects, urinary blockages, bowel obstructions, and airway malformations.