A surgical equipment more than thirty hospital professionals The faith of Valencia successfully intervened in a baby who was still pregnant to remove a heart tumor that has been in danger of his life and that of the mother, in the first operation of this type which takes place in Spain. It was a rare heart tumor known as pericardial teratoma diagnosed at the 24th week of gestation (five and a half months) and who behaved aggressivecompressing the heart and neighboring structures, thus threatening the life of the baby but also the mother, as the Ministry of Health explained this Monday.
Given the complexity of the situation, a comprehensive pregnancy monitoring for the commission of fetal malformations by a multidisciplinary group composed of specialists in obstetrics, neonatology, genetics, surgery, cardiology, neurology and pediatric radiology. This committee initially decided on a intrauterine management with the implementation by the obstetrician of techniques aimed at relieving the compression of the tumor so that the baby can complete its weeks of gestation and avoid premature birth.
Two complete surgical teams participated
At the 28th week of pregnancy (six and a half months), given the extreme seriousness, it was decided remove the baby by cesarean section, weighing only 900 grams. The complexity of the procedure was due to the fact that, due to the characteristics of the tumor, the patient could die immediately after cutting the umbilical cord that kept it attached to the mother, it was therefore necessary to keep it attached to the placenta while the patient was stabilized and the surgical procedure began, using the EXIT (Ex Utero Intrapartum Treatment) technique, as explained the head of the Neonatology Section, Raquel Esrig.
More than thirty professionals, made up of two complete surgical teams, one for the mother and the other for the baby, participated in the study and testing of clinical simulation surgery. After the cesarean section, the young girl was kept alive thanks to placental assistance provided by his mother, allowing his intubation before the clamping of the umbilical cord and his immediate surgical intervention to remove the tumor which was compromising his life. The patient required another operation two months later to remove the remains of the tumor which had grown again.
After that and two cycles of chemotherapy in pediatric oncology, the baby is free of the disease. According to the director of La Fe Hospital, José Luis Poveda, “the coordination and experience of the professionals of our hospital were the key to the success of this operation. “This was a very complex challenge and represents a fundamental step in the treatment of heart tumors in premature babies.”