According to scitechdaily, a team of researchers and clinicians from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s hospital, United States, have successfully treated an aggressive vascular malformation in an infant’s brain before birth. This first-ever in-utero cerebrovascular surgery was part of a clinical trial to address the vein of Galen malformation (VOGM).
The Vein of Galen is found under the cerebral hemisphere and drains some regions of the brain into the sinuses of the posterior cerebral fossa. Aneurysmal malformation of the vein of Galen often results in high-output congestive heart failure or may exacerbate developmental delays and seizures. In VOGM, arteries in the brain connect directly to veins instead of capillaries. Children born with this rare condition barely live long enough for proper diagnosis to be done. Many die within few days after birth from heart failure.
In this trail, ultrasound-guided trans-uterine embolization procedure was used to treat this malformation. Six weeks after the surgery the treated infant was reported to grow normally without any sign of negative brain effects, and no medications. The current standard care procedures for VOGM infants which is to treat them after birth is rarely successful as widespread brain damage is believed to occur even before proper diagnosis is carried out. But this first ever in-utero procedure is a positive shift that will revolutionize surgical interventions for infants with VOGM.
ASVEK Science & Tech 