Intrauterine Correction of Fetal Myelomeningocele Through Minihysterotomy

Spina bifida is the most common congenital central nervous system anomaly, resulting in lifelong neurologic, urinary, motor, and bowel disability.¹ Its most frequent form is myelomeningocele, characterized by spinal cord extrusion into a sac filled with cerebrospinal fluid.¹ We report the case of a 28-year-old pregnant female with no comorbidities. At 16 weeks of pregnancy, fetal ultrasound presented ventriculomegaly, cerebellar herniation, and lumbar myelomeningocele. At 22 weeks, intrauterine surgical correction was performed (Video 1). A minihysterotomy spanning approximately 3 cm was performed. The defect was opened, and the neural placode was dissected and released. This was followed by the isolation of the peripheric dura, which was molded into a tube and closed with watertight suture. Finally, the minihysterotomy was sutured and the skin was closed. The pregnancy followed its course with no complications, and the child was born at term with the lesion closed and no necessity of intensive care. Recent studies have demonstrated that infants who undergo open in utero myelomeningocele repair have better neurologic outcomes than those who are treated after birth.^1,2 However, maternal morbidity is nonnegligible with the classical open surgery.² Peralta et al² propose a modification of the classic 6.0- to 8.0-cm hysterotomy in which the same multilayer correction of the spinal defect is performed through a 2.5- to 3.5-cm hysterotomy. This modification, called minihysterotomy, has been successfully performed outside of its creation center and was associated with reduced risks of preterm delivery and maternal, fetal, and neonatal complications.^2,3.