After receiving the injections, a dozen adults with hemophilia B will be monitored for two years to determine if the treatment reduces their disease symptoms. In-utero Surgery Offers New Treatment Option Spina bifida is one of the most common birth defects, with an incidence of 1 in every 2,000 live births. The abnormality occurs early in fetal life when the primitive neural tube, which eventually forms the spinal cord, fails to close. As a result, delicate spinal nerve bundles may protrude through the developing fetus' back. In some cases, there is also an accumulation of excess fluid within the brain.
Children born with spina bifida face a lifetime of debilitating problems.
These may include paralysis, loss of bowel and bladder function and mental retardation. At The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, surgeon N. Scott Adzick, MD, noted that fetuses with spina bifida typically retained the ability to move their legs until late in gestation. Dr. Adzick theorized that the brain and spinal cord impairments caused by spina bifida resulted not from the defect itself, but from nerve injury related to fetal movement and amniotic fluid irritation. He hypothesized that closing the open spinal defect early in prenatal life might help to preserve neurologic and orthopaedic function. To date, Dr. Adzick and his team at the Center for Fetal Diagnosis have performed ten fetal surgeries to treat spina bifida.