Episode Details
Back to Episodes#475 - đźź [CHNC 2026] - Can Fetal Surgery Prevent Complex Gastroschisis? and how botox is helping in fetal surgery for gastrocshisis.
Description
What if the baby with complex gastroschisis never needed months in the NICU? Recording live at the CHNC Symposium, Daphna sits down with Dr. Sundeep Keswani, associate surgeon-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital, after his keynote on fetoscopic in utero repair of gastroschisis. He explains how fetoscopy has made the risk-benefit balance possible, how intra-abdominal bowel dilation identifies babies at risk, and why a fetal Botox injection to relax the abdominal wall changed the procedure. He shares outcomes from the first five patients in the phase 1 FDA trial, including babies discharged within days, and his hypothesis that bowel dilation may drive the disease itself. He also explains why the 20% who don’t do well deserve our attention.
As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below.
Enjoy!