Türkiye marks national first with successful in-womb spinal surgery
In a landmark achievement on July 14, a medical team at the capital Ankara’s Hacettepe University Children’s Hospital performed Türkiye’s first closed in-womb surgery, successfully repairing a neural tube defect in a 26-week-old fetus.
The anomaly, affecting brain and spinal cord development, was detected via ultrasound when Sebiha Çakmak, 32, was 22 weeks pregnant at Kastamonu Training and Research Hospital in the northern province of Kastamonu. She was transferred to Hacettepe University Perinatology Clinic.
An interdisciplinary team of 30 specialists, including endoscopic surgery expert Associate Professor Dr. Derman Başaran, conducted a fetoscopic operation that lasted six and a half hours with international support from Professor Dr. Alireza Shamshirsaz. Surgeons accessed the womb using milimetric instruments and a camera to close the spinal opening.
A day earlier on July 13, the university’s adult hospital performed an open surgical repair on another fetus with a similar condition. Completing both within 24 hours made Hacettepe University the first center in Türkiye offering open and closed options for neural tube defects.
