Fetus or newborn affected by complications of intrauterine fetal surgery (Q46003)

Fetal surgery is the surgical treatment of a fetus still present in the uterus. It is performed when the fetus is suffering from a birth defect and is not expected to survive the delivery or live long after birth. It allows for the fetus to survive to birth, so that further corrective surgery can then be performed. Fetal surgery can be done in the following ways: fetoscopic surgery by using a fibreoptic scope to enter the uterus through small surgical openings, open fetal surgery by performing a hysterotomy which is an opening of the uterus, or radiofrequency ablation which cuts off the blood supply to a tumour.