AIIMS Delhi Performs India’s First Open Fetal Surgery To Repair Severe Spinal Defect

AIIMS, New Delhi, has performed India’s first open fetal surgery to repair a severe spinal defect in an unborn baby at 25 weeks’ gestation. The six-hour procedure, performed on 12th of this month, involved repairing a lumbosacral myelomeningocele, the most severe form of spina bifida. The operation repaired the cerebrospinal-fluid-leaking lumbosacral defect in utero. Myelomeningocele is an open neural tube defect in which the spinal cord and its coverings protrude through an opening in the spine.

It followed more than five weeks of meticulous multidisciplinary planning, detailed fetal imaging, non-directive counselling, anaesthetic preparation and operative simulation. The multidisciplinary procedure was performed using high end microscopy and continuous high end Ultrasonography assistance at the Neurosciences Centre, AIIMS New Delhi. More than 30 clinicians and nurses from obstetrics and gynaecology, maternal-foetal medicine, neurosurgery, obstetric and neuroanaesthesia, plastic surgery, radiodiagnosis and neonatology participated in the procedure.

AIIMS highlighted that children affected by the condition can develop paralysis, hydrocephalus and other lifelong neurological disabilities. The team also emphasised that fetal surgery is a treatment for selected pregnancies and not a substitute for prevention of neural tube defects.

AIIMS said that the mother and foetus will continue to undergo close multidisciplinary monitoring through the remainder of pregnancy, delivery and the newborn period. It added that the procedure was provided free of cost to the family under the Government of India’s Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram(UPDATED ON 14TH NOVEMBER 2026)