Since December 2014, our project entitled “Reducing invasiveness of fetal SB repair – towards novel surgical approach and instrumentation” has obtained approval of the institutional Ethics Committee of our university KU Leuven (number P285-2014).
In our Academic Department Development and Regeneration, Biomedical Sciences, Organ Systems, at the faculty of Medicine, with my colleague Alexander Engels, we have experimentally partially reproduced, in a pilot study of 6 pregnant ewes, the fetal lamb model of open spina bifida by surgical induction at 100 days of gestation (Meuli-1995).
The technique requires a midline laparotomy and 6-7 cm hysterotomy under general anesthesia. Afterward the fetal surgery performed on six 1000-gram fetuses consists of a large fetal lumbar skin resection, paraspinal muscle resection, 4-level L1-L4 laminectomy and dura mater resection (Fig below).
