Fetal surgical intervention: progress and perspectives

Abstract

Building upon over 30 years of experimental and clinical development, fetal surgery can be argued to be a standard of care for selected indications, though application of these techniques remains limited to a small number of highly selected fetuses, and availability to a small number of highly specialized centers. Despite its limited application to date, the field of fetal surgery continues to evolve, spurred both by technological advances allowing earlier and more accurate diagnosis of fetal anomalies as well as improved capability to intervene when appropriate. The efficacy of fetal surgical intervention has now been validated for selected indications by well-designed, randomized controlled trials. In this review, we summarize the evidence or lack thereof supporting the current most common indications for fetal surgical intervention.