Fetal, or in utero, surgery is a fairly recent medical advancement based on the concept of fetal intervention as a potential treatment or cure for a select group of prenatal conditions. Several methods of intervention have been developed in the past 30 years, ranging from invasive, open uterine surgery to minimally invasive lap-aroscopic surgery. This article provides an overview of these methods, as well as a survey of some of the conditions treated by fetal surgery. It also introduces several interesting future applications and briefly addresses the ethical issues involved when the fetus, rather than the mother, becomes the primary patient.
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