Surgical Procedure on Fetuses May Curb Spina Bifida Damage

For infants who develop spina bifida, a surgical procedure performed early in the pregnancy can minimize damage from the disorder, researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia report in the New England Journal of Medicine. In spina bifida, embryos develop an opening in the bone that normally covers the spinal cord. The birth defect almost always involves a so-called hindbrain herniation, in which a portion of the brain is squeezed from the skull into the spinal column, blocking the flow of cerebrospinal fluid and causing hydrocephalus.

Dr. Leslie N. Sutton and colleagues operated on 10 fetuses in the womb at a gestational age of 22 to 25 weeks to close the hole in the tissue surrounding the fetal spine. They found that this procedure significantly reduced the amount of hindbrain herniation.

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II