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Tinkering in the womb: the future of fetal surgery

Nature Medicine volume 14, pages 1176–1177 (2008)Cite this article

Surgeons have been operating on fetuses for more than two decades. Because of the danger to both mother and child, doctors reserve the procedure for just a handful of the most severe defects. As fetal diagnosis and treatment progress, however, physicians might be able to combine less invasive surgical techniques with stem cell and gene therapies to treat a wide range of diseases in utero, with considerably less risk. According to Alan Flake, a pediatric surgeon at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, operations such as Connor's—where doctors must slice through the mother's abdomen and womb to reach the fetus—will be nonexistent in 20 years. “I think these techniques will be considered somewhat Neanderthal,” he says. “To me, the real future of fetal treatment is applying stem cells or gene therapy to the fetus.”

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    Cassandra Willyard

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Willyard, C. Tinkering in the womb: the future of fetal surgery. Nat Med 14, 1176–1177 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1108-1176

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