ABSTRACT
BRIEF HISTORY OF FETAL SURGERY e availability of ultrasound imaging and screening programs has made the unborn child a true patient. Fetal surgery has evolved over the past three decades from an ambitious concept, to a familiar, regulated, and innovative eld of medicine. New intraoperative techniques for open surgeries and minimally invasive image-guided percutaneous approaches for fetoscopic repairs have had a positive impact on outcomes. In addition, overall improvements in postoperative care have decreased morbidity. Advances in fetal imaging, diagnosis, anesthesia, and postoperative tocolysis have accelerated progress such that fetal interventions have now become vital for subsets of fetal patients who would otherwise endure signicant lifelong morbidity and increased mortality.
