Beep. Beep. Beep. The monitor sings its continuous tone and the anesthesiologist gives you a nod, signaling you can begin. You take a deep breath before looking to the scrub nurse, “10-blade.” She hands you the knife, and you begin the incision, but the patent you are cutting is not the one you are saving. Instead, you are saving her baby. The surgery you are performing is called prenatal surgery, but what exactly is that? How is it done? How did it begin? What are some things it solves? Keep reading to find out.
What is Prenatal Surgery?
Prenatal Surgery, also known as fetal surgery, antennal surgery, or maternal fetal surgery, is surgery performed on an unborn fetus. Prenatal surgery is a very new field of surgery, and it is only done in extreme cases. According to encyclopedia. Com, there are only about 600 candidates in the United States and even few surgeries are actually performed. Most surgeries are performed because the baby would not survive birth. Most commonly, surgeries are done to resolve respiratory issues. Because the practice is so new, few surgeries have been performed and many procedures are considered experimental or high-risk. There are two main types of prenatal surgery- open surgery and closed surgery. Open surgeries take place when surgeons have to open the mother’s abdomen to reach the fetus. Closed fetal surgery is the opposite. In closed fetal surgery, the surgeon does not need to open the mother’s abdomen and no incisions are made.
How is
Did you ever consider everything that has to go exactly right for a baby to be born with out any birth defects, prematurity, or low birth weight? The answer is a lot, and according to the March of Dimes more then 460,000 babies are born prematurely every year in the United States alone (March of Dimes website). Recently, this statistic hit closer to home when a close friend of mine gave birth to her first child. At five months she was informed that her baby would be born prematurely with a hole in its diaphragm, a birth defect that could mean life or death. When the time came to deliver, the doctors performed a caesarean section. With the help of supporting organizations and
Defining premature birth is much more than just a denotative phrase. It is not just a preterm birth, or a baby born early. It is a life-changing event, and something that affects millions of people worldwide. The intense quiet room with heart monitors beeping, as parents see their baby and are devastated. Loved ones can not feed them or kiss them nor, can they not hold them or hug them. They do not get the same experience as others. Little miracles lay inside these cubes where multiple wires are help keeping them alive. A place where prayers happen, and where all hope for the best. Nobody knows the true pain and struggle behind a preterm birth and it needs to be discussed. Prematurity is a serious conflict; therefore, it needs more awareness as many families are facing this tough situation.
Compared to the general adult population the maternal airway management can be more challenging as changes during pregnancy can increase the difficulty of intubation (Brien and Conlon, 2013). Its makes hard to insert laryngoscope when the patient have a large breast, the chance of bleeding and swelling increases due to oedema and vascularity of the upper respiratory tract, and the patient desaturate quicker as there is increase in oxygen requirements and there is reduced in functional residual capacity (Mushambi et al, 2015). As a result of all the changes during pregnancy, if the problems encountered during the intubation of Mrs D were to happen to an obstetric patient, it is important to provide optimal surgical condition for to progress rapidly while aiming for a good neonatal outcome (Local theatre policy, 2015b). In obstetric patients, much of the issue is about the urgency with which the foetus must be delivered and the surgical operation must be done as quickly as possible - therefore making decisions in the event of certain clinical situations occurring will require a much quicker decision making process because there is an immediate threat to the life of the woman or foetus (Mushambi et al, 2015). This is why emergency obstetric anaesthesia is such a potentially hazardous
Nowadays, there are many possibilities. New advances in science may cover almost any complication in pregnancy, without having to choose to kill the mother or the baby.
It is easy to see that the medical abilities and tools we had 50 years ago are nothing in comparison to what we have today. Among these advances has been the extent to which we can prevent illness and disability. Fetal surgery first emerged in the 1980’s by Dr Michael Harrison aka “the father of fetal surgery,” when he decided to look into ways doctors could fix certain defects before birth to avoid their inevitable, devastating consequences. It has since expanded its practice to a number of hospitals across the country, although it is still an uncommon procedure. It involves opening up the mother 's uterus (just as a doctor would during a caesarean section) so that the fetus is exposed as much as needed to be operated on. The fetus is then put back and the uterus is closed until it is time for the mother to go into labor. The fetus is never detached from the mother and is essentially being operated on while inside the womb (Smajdor). While it may seem like a positive life changing procedure, there are many perspectives out there that support
The advanced technology today makes it possible to fetus’s potential conditions when it is born. Not everything is perfect and sometimes we find out that a baby
back of the fetus’ head and the brains are extracted with suction. This allows the fetus to
Second trimester procedure: is known as dilation and evacuation in which doctors dilates the cervix and remove the fetus.
A commonly known procedure when it comes to hospital births are epidurals. An epidural is an injection of a drug between the “epidural space” which causes
After birth, both types of abdominal wall defects can be treated. The exposed organs are typically wrapped in a surgical cling film, which helps prevent infection. A primary repair surgery can be performed as soon as the baby is stable enough. This surgery is performed if a small portion of the bowel was exposed. During this surgery, the bowl is simply returned to the abdomen and the
Cesarean Operation also known as Cesarean Section goes way back to the 1500’s, when Julius Caesar was the first born child from a Cesarean operation according to historical myth. Unfortunately, his mother was already dead when the cesarean operation was performed. Cesarean Section was performed when the mother is dying or already dead by an incision in the abdominal area. “The operation was not intended to preserve the mother’s life”. Retrieved from “US National library of Medicine: Cesarean Section Retrieved from nlm.hih.gov”. In the Early History of Cesarean Section, some of its history information still remains a myth and Historians believed cesarean section happen before the 1500’s.
Also, you may have problems delivering your babies. There is a higher probability of undergoing a cesarean section, which is when the babies are delivered through a surgical opening in your belly, also known as a
The prenatal care and instruction with birth defect deliveries was introduced about 1900 and was rapidly adopted through the world. Beginning with the development of hormonal contraceptive pills in the 1950s, OB-GYNs have also become responsible for regulating women’s fertility. With the development of amniocentesis, ultrasound, and other methods for the prenatal diagnosis of birth defects, OB-GYNs have been able to abort defective fetuses and unwanted pregnancies. At the same time, new methods for artificially implanting fertilized embryos within the uterus have enabled obstetrician-gynecologists to help previously infertile couples to have children when they're not able. The job of an obstetrician is help a woman throughout
Prenatal surgery included opening the uterus, doing the myelomeningocele repair surgery, and the mother being put into the hospital in a non-intensive care unit around 11.9 days (Werner, E. F., et al, 161). Surgery done after birth was thought to involve the surgery to correct the birth defect and a 15 day hospitalization with at least half of those days being in intensive care. The authors of this study said, “We estimated that prenatal myelomeningocele repair is a dominant strategy, both cost saving and quality improving, when compared to postnatal repair” (162). The study approximated that surgery done to the fetus before birth would save around $2,066,778 for every 100 surgeries, compared to surgery done after birth.
Delivery for the birth of the way in which surgery is resorted to. Some circumstances may, F-section is already planned. While in most cases it is circumstantial. The Bread for the mother after the surgery that would concern how are the normal state of operation after it.