[Fetal therapy: prenatal surgery]

The better quality of fetal ultrasound imaging and the development of systematic pregnancy screening programmes allow an earlier detection of fetal anomalies. Most of these conditions can adequately be treated after birth. However, some fetal anomalies progress rapidly during fetal life and can lead to severe morbidity or fetal demise. For such cases, delivery is not an option since the fetus is not viable or delivery will add severe prematurity to the underlying pathology. This raises the question of fetal therapy, allowing curing or improving the condition in utero without to add prematurity. We provide here an overview the most common fetal therapies.