Physicians at Clalit Health Services’ Beilinson Hospital have successfully performed Israel’s first intrauterine (prenatal) surgery to remove a rare placental tumor that threatened the life of an unborn child, Clalit announced.
The 25-week pregnant mother was rushed to the Petah Tikva medical center after a routine anatomy scan revealed a growth developing on the placenta's surface.
Follow-up ultrasound examinations indicated that the tumor was disrupting the blood circulation between the mother and the fetus. The severe circulatory changes had already triggered fetal heart failure, placing the unborn baby in immediate, life-threatening danger.
Because the pregnancy was at an early stage, delivering the baby prematurely carried severe developmental risks.
Consequently, the medical team opted for an emergency in utero intervention.
The operation was led by Dr. Yuval Gielchinsky, Director of the Fetal Medicine Center at Clalit-Beilinson, alongside Dr. Kinneret Tenenbaum, Head of the Twin Pregnancy Clinic.
"In advanced stages of pregnancy, delivery can sometimes be the solution," Dr. Gielchinsky explained. "But in this case, the patient was only 25 weeks pregnant. The only remaining option was an endoscopic fetal intervention, which is only possible when the tumor is located in an accessible area of the placenta, as it was in this case."
A minimally invasive procedure
During the minimally invasive procedure, surgeons entered the uterus, pinpointed the precise blood vessels supplying the tumor, and used advanced cauterization techniques to seal them off, effectively starving the tumor of its blood supply.
Placental tumors are generally rare, according to experts at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). While many remain benign and develop too slowly to interfere with a normal pregnancy, severe cases can dangerously divert blood away from the fetus. This can lead to serious complications, including fetal anemia, low platelet counts, extreme excess amniotic fluid, and preeclampsia in the mother, a study from the NLM explained.
Following the milestone surgery, the mother was monitored closely in Beilinson’s maternal-fetal medicine unit. The hospital confirmed that she has since been discharged home in stable condition and will continue to receive specialized outpatient follow-up care at the Fetal Medicine Clinic.