In collaboration with The Fetal Institute Miami, the National Institute of Perinatology in Mexico (INPer) successfully performed a Fetal Laser Photocoagulation Surgery. The goal is to create the first public National Center for Fetal and Perinatal Surgery in Mexico
Dr. Ruben Quintero from The Fetal Institute Miami and the specialists from the National Institute of Perinatology, “Isidro Espinosa de Los Reyes” (INPer), successfully performed a fetal laser photocoagulation surgery. The procedure was carried out in a patient with a twin pregnancy of 20 weeks’ gestation.
This intervention allowed correcting an alteration known as Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS), a specific and unique complication of multiple gestations with a single placenta that causes both fetuses to pass blood to each other in an unbalanced way through placenta vascular communications, which puts the lives of both fetuses at risk.
On January 29, 2021 the intervention was carried out by a team of specialists from The Fetal Institute Miami and Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialists from INPer. In Mexico, there are approximately 32,000 twin births; of these, 30% are monochorionic (development of twins with a single placenta), of which up to 20%, about 1,800 pregnancies, will develop TTTS.
The Procedure
Minimally-invasive surgery consisted of making an incision in the skin of the mother to insert a cannula into the uterine cavity, where a camera and the laser fiber were introduced.
Through the camera, a direct view of the placenta is obtained through an endoscope. After identifying the vascular communications, they are coagulated with laser, eliminating all vascular connections between the fetuses and dividing the single placenta into two independent placental territories.
More collaborations
In order to offer specialized and high-quality care that patients and their babies require, INPer has the project of creating the first public National Center for High-Specialty Perinatal Surgery with the support of The Fetal Institute Miami, directed by the renowned specialists in fetal surgery Dr. Rubén Quintero and Dr. Eftichia Kontopoulos.
The collaboration between both institutes aims to train and expand INPer’s fetal medicine specialists’ skills, weighing ethics and humanism values, becoming the first public hospital in Mexico to treat pathologies during pregnancy with minimally-invasive techniques.
