Vietnam 1st Country in Southeast Asia to Conduct Fetal Heart Surgery Successfully
Vietnam has become the first country in the Southeast Asian region to succeed in carrying out a heart surgery for a 32-week-old fetus with a severe congenital heart defect, local media reported.
The medical team from Children's Hospital 1 and Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City completed utero heart valve transplant in 40 minutes on January 4. After the intervention, the fetus's heart returned to normal and there were no complications.
In the last five years, advances in fetal heart surgery have been limited, with successful implementations noted in some places like Brazil and Poland, Dr. Do Nguyen Tin noted.
Statistics showed that Vietnam records 10,000 - 12,000 children born with congenital heart defects each year, meaning a child with congenital heart defects is born every 15 minutes.
Among these children, about 50% have severe congenital heart defects, yet only 5,000 undergo surgical procedures.