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Her parents signed up for a clinical trial of an in-utero surgical treatment to see if doctors could intervene before any of these outcomes materialized. It seems to have worked. The team behind the operation now plans to treat more fetuses in the same way. Other, similar brain conditions might benefit from the same approach. For conditions like these, fetal brain surgery could be the future.
The baby's condition, known as vein of Galen malformation, was first noticed during a routine ultrasound scan at 30 weeks of pregnancy. The condition occurs when a vein connects with an artery in the brain. These two types of vessels have different functions and should be kept separate—arteries ferry high-pressure flows of oxygenated blood from the heart, while thin-walled veins carry low-pressure blood back the other way.
When the two combine, the high-pressure blood flow from an artery can stretch the thin walls of the vein. "Over time the vein essentially blows up like a balloon," says Darren Orbach, a radiologist at Boston Children's Hospital in Massachusetts, who treats babies born with the condition.
The resulting balloon of blood can cause serious problems for a baby. "It's stealing blood from the rest of the circulation," says Mario Ganau, a consultant neurosurgeon at Oxford University Hospitals in the UK, who was not involved in this particular case. Other parts of the brain can end up being starved of oxygenated blood, causing brain damage, and there's a risk of bleeding in the brain. The extra pressure put on the heart to pump blood can lead to heart failure. And other organs can suffer too—especially the lungs and kidneys, says Ganau.
Fetuses with the condition are thought to be protected by the placenta to some degree. But that changes from the moment the umbilical cord is clamped at birth. "All of a sudden there's this enormous burden placed right on the newborn heart," says Orbach. "Most babies with this condition will become very sick, very quickly."
Journal Reference:
Darren B. Orbach, Louise E. Wilkins-Haug, Carol B. Benson, et al., Transuterine Ultrasound-Guided Fetal Embolization of Vein of Galen Malformation, Eliminating Postnatal Pathophysiology [open], Stroke, 2023. DOI: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/STROKEAHA.123.043421
(Score: 1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Friday May 05, @07:33PM (2 children)
Not true. States like NY allow abortion until the moment of birth. In fact, if an abortion is botched and the baby comes out alive, their law says medical treatment can be withheld from the baby until it dies. BTW, the NY legislature stood up and cheered when this law passed.
(Score: 2) by DadaDoofy on Friday May 05, @07:35PM
Sorry, I meant to reply to the parent of your comment.
(Score: 4, Informative) by gnuman on Saturday May 06, @11:50AM
That's not how it works.
You do realize that early medical termination of pregnancy is called "abortion", by definition? You do realize that there are thousands and thousands of cases each year (in US alone) of non-viable fetuses? And in virtually all of these cases, the parents want the baby but there is very little hope?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/louisiana-woman-carrying-fetus-skull-seek-abortion-another-state-rcna45005 [nbcnews.com]
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/26/poland-death-of-woman-refused-abortion [theguardian.com]
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/anencephaly.html [cdc.gov]
In sane countries, like Canada, there is no "limit" imposed by politicians about gestational age and abortion. But there are virtually no abortions, aside from reasons like above, done after 16 weeks or so. None. Why?? You make it sound like medical establishment is without morals, like the oath they take to "do no harm" is pointless and that only your righteous convictions can stop evil from happening. Well, my ignorant friend, road to hell is paved with good intentions -- that's not a euphemism, that's reality. There well over 100 million births per year in the world. While 98% will be just fine at birth, that leaves about 2,000,000 that will be sick, need surgery to correct birth defects and many will be non-viable.
So keep your paranoia and moral panic to yourself. There is a lot of suffering that is brought into this world unnecessarily (to the parents, never mind the child) because people like yourself can't imagine scenarios that happen every minute of our lives. "but but I obviously don't mean baby with no head..." ... or chromosomal abnormalities where baby is dead before first birthday..
And here, the facts for abortion by gestational age.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion#/media/File:US_abortion_by_gestational_age_2016_histogram.svg [wikipedia.org]
As you can see, very few abortions past 1st trimester and basically none past 20 weeks... but I guess let's not let the facts stop your prejudice.