Fetal surgery program a first in Cincinnati
University Hospital recruits physicians
Tonya Brooks
Issue date: 5/15/03 Section: News
A new type of surgery will soon be available in Cincinnati for the most fragile of patients.
University Hospital, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Good Samaritan Hospital are pooling resources to bring a regional fetal surgery program to Cincinnati.
This kind of surgery is performed through the mother's abdomen while the fetus is still gestating.
Surgeons can now reach into the uterus and treat some conditions that would be life threatening to a fetus.
After the surgery, the fetus is able to continue normal development and the pregnancy can come to term months later.
Dr. Baha Sibai, chairman of obstetrics and pediatrics at UC, came to Cincinnati from the University of Tennessee three years ago, partly for the opportunity to work with Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Now he is helping to recruit physicians for the fetal surgery program.
"We hope that we can start offering something early next year on a regional basis," Sibai said. "We will start with a small percent of pregnancies but will ultimately serve a tremendous number of patients."
Although fetal surgery has been performed since 1981, few cities have a fetal surgery program.
The University of California San Francisco, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Vanderbilt University have been leaders in the field.
Now UC will help bring Cincinnati into that elite group. Fetal surgery offers treatment for a limited number of conditions, although the list is expanding as more sophisticated techniques and tools are developed. In some cases, surgeons can now enter the uterus through instruments, such as a fetoscope, that eliminate the need for open surgery.
One of the earliest anomalies to be successfully treated with surgery was obstructive uropathy, a condition in which a fetus has a blockage, often in the bladder, that impedes urine flow. This potentially fatal condition can cause irreversible damage to the kidneys and lungs. Now doctors can test renal [kidney] function in a developing fetus and intervene.
University Hospital, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Good Samaritan Hospital are pooling resources to bring a regional fetal surgery program to Cincinnati.
This kind of surgery is performed through the mother's abdomen while the fetus is still gestating.
Surgeons can now reach into the uterus and treat some conditions that would be life threatening to a fetus.
After the surgery, the fetus is able to continue normal development and the pregnancy can come to term months later.
Dr. Baha Sibai, chairman of obstetrics and pediatrics at UC, came to Cincinnati from the University of Tennessee three years ago, partly for the opportunity to work with Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Now he is helping to recruit physicians for the fetal surgery program.
"We hope that we can start offering something early next year on a regional basis," Sibai said. "We will start with a small percent of pregnancies but will ultimately serve a tremendous number of patients."
Although fetal surgery has been performed since 1981, few cities have a fetal surgery program.
The University of California San Francisco, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Vanderbilt University have been leaders in the field.
Now UC will help bring Cincinnati into that elite group. Fetal surgery offers treatment for a limited number of conditions, although the list is expanding as more sophisticated techniques and tools are developed. In some cases, surgeons can now enter the uterus through instruments, such as a fetoscope, that eliminate the need for open surgery.
One of the earliest anomalies to be successfully treated with surgery was obstructive uropathy, a condition in which a fetus has a blockage, often in the bladder, that impedes urine flow. This potentially fatal condition can cause irreversible damage to the kidneys and lungs. Now doctors can test renal [kidney] function in a developing fetus and intervene.