US doctors correct baby’s birth defect in pioneering in-utero surgery

Doctors have used ground-breaking surgery on an unborn baby to successfully correct a birth defect while he was still inside the womb, the BBC writes.

His mother, Maisie Savage, from London, was operated on by doctors in the US while she was 26 weeks pregnant.

Baby Theo, who is now five months old and thriving, had gastroschisis, where the belly button does not develop properly, causing the intestines to grow externally.

After discovering he had the more serious condition of complex gastroschisis, doctors referred him to Texas Children’s Hospital, in Houston. There, a team of foetal and paediatric surgeons, led by Dr Michael Belfort, had been leading a first-of-its-kind clinical trial to repair complex gastroschisis before birth.

Doctors partially exposed his mother’s womb and then gently pushed his organs back inside his abdomen using keyhole surgery.

It is reported to be the third case of its kind in the world as part of the clinical trial.

The serious birth defect affects one in 3,000 UK babies each year. In the best-case scenarios, babies can require weeks in intensive care and nutritional feeding through a tube or IV and corrective surgery.

For the most complex cases, like Theo’s, outcomes are far more serious with up to six months in neonatal intensive care, multiple surgeries, IV nutritional feeding for up to two years, and a possible intestinal transplant.