PITTSBURGH — It’s surely one of the most terrifying moments a pregnant woman faces, finding out the fetus inside of you has a severe medical problem. In the Pittsburgh area, these families have hope. That’s because Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland is on the international forefront of surgeries on fetus in the womb.
Dr. Stephen Emery is the director of the Center for Innovative Fetal Intervention at Magee. He has worked in the field for nearly three decades.
“McGee Women’s Hospital has an internationally recognized fetal therapy program,” said Dr. Emery. “We are one of the top players in the country and in the world. So you don’t have to drive four hours to another city.”
Emery said he hears from families that he’s helped over the years.
“I get emails of kids that are older, 13-year-old twins that you operated on in your first couple cases and they’re not healthy teenagers. It’s just awesome,” said Dr. Emery.
Maternal Fetal Medicine’s Dr. Tiffany Deihl is also the associate director of the Center for Fetal Intervention. She has studied under Dr. Emery for nearly two years.
“When you’re a maternal fetal medicine doctor, you’re taking care of both mom and babies,” Deihl said.
Deihl added she’s inspired by advances for conditions that were deadly in the past, like some twins sharing a placenta, or an anemic fetus that ultimately develops heart failure.
“We can now, very minimally invasively, by using a needle, give them a blood transfusion. That not only prevents fetal death, but also allows them to get all the way to full term,” Deihl said.
The advances in the field are still coming. Right now, Dr. Emery is focusing on fetuses with hydrocephalus or cerebral spinal fluid on the brain. It causes brain damage as the pregnancy moves forward.
“We’re developing a shunt that lets the excess fluid drain from inside the skull into the amniotic cavity, a ventricular amniotic shunt. And the advantage of that is it takes the pressure off the brain, and now the brain can develop normally, and now the kid can be born normal, said Dr. Emery.
The research is having success in animal models, but the team just got a two million dollar grant to expand on it. The plan is to get FDA approval soon to start human trials.
All of this is research that can help worldwide. Dr. Emery stressed the world of fetal medicine is small. Hospitals work together to make advancements. Next year, he’ll serve as the president of the International Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society.
“Everyone meets, and we all discuss our research and kind of move the field forward,” said Dr. Emery.
All to bring knowledge back to Magee, where specialists are all in one place for an all-around healthy outcome.
“The fact that we can counsel some of these patients, about options that they might have to kind of increase the chance that they get a healthy baby, or two healthy babies at the end of it is really just very rewarding,” said Dr. Deihl.
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