In first, Israeli doctors perform fetal surgery to save unborn baby’s life

Placental tumors do not always interfere with pregnancy and in many cases develop slowly without requiring treatment.

By JNS

Physicians at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah have performed Israel’s first intrauterine (prenatal) surgery to treat a rare tumor that developed on the placenta and threatened the life of an unborn baby, Clalit Health Services said on Monday.

The patient, who was 25 weeks pregnant, was referred to the hospital after a routine anatomy scan revealed a tumor growing on the surface of the placenta.

An ultrasound examination showed that the tumor caused severe changes in fetal blood circulation and led to heart failure, placing the fetus in immediate danger, according to the statement.

Due to the rapid deterioration in the baby’s condition, the medical team decided to perform an emergency fetal surgery, the first procedure of its kind ever carried out in Israel.

The operation was led by Dr. Yuval Gielchinsky, director of the Fetal Medicine Center at Clalit-Beilinson, together with Dr. Kinneret Tenenbaum, head of the Twin Pregnancy Clinic.

According to Gielchinsky, placental tumors do not always interfere with pregnancy and in many cases develop slowly without requiring treatment.

However, in rare and severe cases, they can pose a major threat to both the fetus and the mother, potentially causing fetal heart failure, anemia, low platelet levels, extreme excess amniotic fluid and even preeclampsia.

“In advanced stages of pregnancy, delivery can sometimes be the solution,” Clalit cited him as explaining.

“But in this case, the patient was only 25 weeks pregnant. The only remaining option was an endoscopic fetal intervention, which is only possible when the tumor is located in an accessible area of the placenta, as it was in this case.”

During the operation, the medical team entered the uterus, identified the blood vessels feeding the tumor, and sealed them using a cauterization technique, cutting off the tumor’s blood supply from the placenta.

Following the procedure, the mother was hospitalized for monitoring in the maternal fetal medicine unit.

She was discharged home last week and will continue follow-up care through Beilinson Hospital’s Fetal Medicine Clinic, Clalit Health Services said.