Fetal surgery.

Fetal surgery holds the promise of correcting some fetal problems at an early point in gestation, before fetal injury or death has occurred. Prenatal operative intervention may become the more cost-effective and humane approach to a series of otherwise devastating fetal diseases. With refinement of techniques that reduce maternal and fetal risk from fetal surgery, it may be possible to treat nonfatal fetal diseases with less postnatal morbidity.