Science never ceases to surprise us and luckily it is for good. Recently it has been carried out at the University Hospital of La Paz, in Madrid, a operation to a girl during childbirth, while still in the womb, or almost.
This girl had a tumor mass detected in the thorax that surrounded the trachea and compressed a bronchus. Given this situation, doctors thought that, although there were no problems inside the uterus (basically because babies in the womb do not breathe), they could have them once they were born.
They decided to try a technique not used to date in that center (it has already been done in Barcelona and Seville) which is called EXIT, which stands for Ex Utero Intrapartum Treatment, which translates as "Treatment during childbirth outside the uterus."
The innovative thing about this technique is that the baby is intervened while still attached to the mother through the umbilical cord. In this way it continues to receive blood and oxygen and complications that could arise during the operation can be avoided, in addition to solving the possible problem that would involve operating such a small girl once it is separated from the mother, when the only possible source of oxygen is the airways
The intervention of the girl was brief, just 10 minutes, time in which the head and arms of the fetus were removed leaving the rest of the body inside the uterus and the airway was secured by partially releasing the compressed bronchus. In this way, it was not necessary to remove the mass, a procedure that could have been complicated and probably carried out later.
Once the treatment was carried out, the girl was completely removed (the intervention was like a caesarean section) and then the umbilical cord was cut.
As we have said above, it seems to us a novel technique that can help save many lives, since once the baby is separated from the mother, it is he, with his small organism, who has to fight to survive. Power being intervened together by means of the umbilical cord to the mother means continuing to receive oxygen, blood and therefore nutrients, which is almost life insurance for this event.
