Intrauterine Ultrasound-Guided Laser Coagulation as a First Step for Treatment of Prenatally Complicated Bronchopulmonary Sequestration: Our Experience and Literature Review

Successful Elective Thoracoscopic Resection of Complicate Extralobar Bronchopulmonary Sequestration after Intrafoetal Vascular Laser Ablation: The Paediatric Surgeon's Point of View

Few reports of laser coagulation for foetal bronchopulmonary sequestration (BPS), a rare congenital malformation characterised by the absence of tracheobronchial connection and the presence of a systemic feeding artery, have been published. Additionally, very few of them focus also on the postnatal management, with results limited and controversial. Postnatal treatment of residual malformation remains debated, hence the need to share our experience of a combined pre- and postnatal approach to complicated extra-lobar BPS. We report the case of a female foetus with the diagnosis of a pulmonary lesion. Due to mediastinal shift, unilateral compressive hydrothorax, ascites, and hydrops, a foetal treatment with ultrasound-guided laser coagulation of the anomalous vessel was performed. At birth, due to the persistence of the malformation, an elective delayed thoracoscopical surgery was performed. Prenatal laser ablation for complicated BPS is a life-saving procedure not always resulting in lesion disappearance. Thoracoscopical surgical exploration in case of persistent lesions at birth offers the possibility of a minimally invasive sequestrectomy feasible and safe.

Prenatal Diagnosis of Fetal Heart Failure

Fetal heart failure (FHF) is a condition of inability of the fetal heart to deliver adequate blood flow for tissue perfusion in various organs, especially the brain, heart, liver and kidneys. FHF is associated with inadequate cardiac output, which is commonly encountered as the final outcome of several disorders and may lead to intrauterine fetal death or severe morbidity. Fetal echocardiography plays an important role in diagnosis of FHF as well as of the underlying causes. The main findings supporting the diagnosis of FHF include various signs of cardiac dysfunction, such as cardiomegaly, poor contractility, low cardiac output, increased central venous pressures, hydropic signs, and the findings of specific underlying disorders. This review will present a summary of the pathophysiology of fetal cardiac failure and practical points in fetal echocardiography for diagnosis of FHF, focusing on essential diagnostic techniques used in daily practice for evaluation of fetal cardiac function, such as myocardial performance index, arterial and systemic venous Doppler waveforms, shortening fraction, and cardiovascular profile score (CVPs), a combination of five echocardiographic markers indicative of fetal cardiovascular health. The common causes of FHF are reviewed and updated in detail, including fetal dysrhythmia, fetal anemia (e.g., alpha-thalassemia, parvovirus B19 infection, and twin anemia-polycythemia sequence), non-anemic volume load (e.g., twin-to-twin transfusion, arteriovenous malformations, and sacrococcygeal teratoma, etc.), increased afterload (intrauterine growth restriction and outflow tract obstruction, such as critical aortic stenosis), intrinsic myocardial disease (cardiomyopathies), congenital heart defects (Ebstein anomaly, hypoplastic heart, pulmonary stenosis with intact interventricular septum, etc.) and external cardiac compression. Understanding the pathophysiology and clinical courses of various etiologies of FHF can help physicians make prenatal diagnoses and serve as a guide for counseling, surveillance and management.