Fetal Surgery | UC Davis Children's Hospital

Fetal surgery can offer hope of correcting or minimizing a variety of life-threatening or potentially disabling conditions affecting the fetus, helping to both facilitate delivery of a healthy child and protect the health of the mother.

For certain conditions fetal surgery now represents the standard of care — for example, in myelomeningocele, the most serious form of spina bifida that can limit a child’s future mobility, learning ability and bowel/bladder function. Surgery is also standard for twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, a condition in which blood flow between twins becomes abnormal. Benefits for both conditions have been proven in randomized clinical trials.

For other conditions, prenatal surgery represents a new and powerful option for physicians and parents to consider as they seek to balance potential impacts to the mother’s health against those of the new child.