The project is leading to an expansion in the use of biomedical sensor technologies throughout the medical community. These technologies benefit doctors and patients as well as NASA's life sciences and exploration missions. One outcome is that pediatric surgeons at the Fetal Treatment Center at UCSF have pioneered a surgical procedure to treat fetuses suffering from diaphragmatic hernia. In this condition a hole in the diaphragm allows internal organs to shift from the abdominal cavity into the chest cavity.
Conventional treatment is very expensive.
Monitoring the status of a fetus, both during and after such surgery, is critical to the success of the procedure. Currently, a commercially available wireless telemetry device that monitors the baby's heart rate, body temperature and interuterine pressure, is implanted under the skin of the fetus and left in place until after birth. Once the baby is stable following birth, the device can be removed. UCSF doctors are seeking to improve their monitoring capabilities and expand their surgical techniques to the treatment of other prenatal disorders. The doctors are collaborating with NASA engineers and scientists to develop a tissue pH sensor and biotelemetry system to expand the fetal monitoring capability.