Led by Rodrigo Ruano, MD, chair of the division of maternal and fetal medicine at the Rochester, Minn.-based system, the study determined that prenatal surgery to correct congenital spinal cord defects is more effective at healing neurological structure than postnatal surgery.
The research focused on three patients with myelomeningocele — the most severe form of spinal bifida — who underwent fetal surgery.
Mayo Clinic surgeons operated on each of the babies to close the spinal cord defect in utero. MRI scans six weeks later indicated that the brain structure had been restored in each baby before birth.
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