At the San Jorge Hospital, a baby was successfully operated on in her mother’s womb
- A girl just six months pregnant had a neural tube defect corrected through an intrauterine intervention performed by a multidisciplinary medical team at the San Jorge Hospital in Pereira.
Pereira, June 11, 2024. Through a complex surgical intervention carried out inside the uterus of a young mother, a multidisciplinary scientific team at the service of the San Jorge University Hospital in Pereira managed to correct the defect that a pregnant baby had and which would have led to other pathologies at birth.
The governor of Risaralda Juan Diego Patiño Ochoa, as well as the manager of the San Jorge de Pereira University Hospital, Javier Alejandro Gaviria Murillo, agreed in pointing out that situations like these demonstrate the qualification of the scientific team at the service of the institution and the high level of specialization that has been achieved to provide Risraldenses with a health service with quality and opportunity, even in such complex situations.
The patients underwent a surgery that consisted of making an incision in the mother’s uterus as if it were a cesarean section to expose the baby’s defect that must be corrected and once the procedure was done, the uterus was closed again so that the procedure could continue. pregnancy normally. Today, mother Meyra Luz Moreno Guzmán enjoys very good health with her little girl, who was born without complications, thanks to the intrauterine intervention to which she underwent when she was barely around six months pregnant.
Doctor Leydi A. Guzmán Polanía, specialized in perinatology, explained that through an ultrasound the girl was diagnosed with a neural tube defect, which means that the spinal cord is unable to close properly and a type of hernia forms.
The diagnosis of this condition indicates that gestating children’s heads fill with fluid, which results in a pathology called hydrocephalus and, consequently, once they are born they may have problems walking, controlling their basic needs and difficulties. in neurological development.
Once this situation was known, the mother decided to continue with the pregnancy and went to the San Jorge Hospital, which has a qualified scientific team trained to carry out the spina bifida correction protocol prenatally, that is, inside the uterus without interrupting the process. of gestation.
Dr. Guzmán explained the complex surgical intervention in the following terms:
“A small incision is made through the uterus, which is entered as if it were a cesarean section by the maternal-fetal medicine team, which exposes the baby’s defect so that the neurosurgery team can correct it and once corrected, again The uterus closes and the pregnancy continues.”
He added that the main benefit achieved is to reduce the need for other procedures once the baby is born, which in such a small creature increases the risks of infections, complications, brain damage and the need to place a valve called a ventricle shunt. peritoneal.
With this intervention, the chances of the baby being able to walk spontaneously are improved, the need to use crutches or a wheelchair is reduced, as well as the benefit in sphincter control.
After the procedure, the mother, Meyra Luz, remained for three days in the Intensive Care Unit, ICU, in order to monitor both her and the unborn child, who was born by cesarean section at seven months and two weeks after the birth. pregnancy.
“The girl has evolved very well. For this reason, I want to thank the perinatologists and neurosurgeons at the San Jorge Hospital in Pereira for all the care they gave me and the baby,” pointed out the happy mother.
