Advances in Fetal Surgery: Current and Future Relevance in Plastic Surgery

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Scarless healing has long been the holy grail for plastic surgery. While historically fetal surgery has tempted plastic surgeons with the allure of scarless correction of congenital abnormalities, the risks far outweighed the benefits and these interventions never materialized. Current advances in fetal surgery with minimally invasive fetoscopic surgery have made these early fetal interventions safer, leading to expanding applications. While the plastic surgeon's role is limited as of yet, this article provides a review of the history of fetal surgery and the advances that may become relevant to the future plastic surgeon.

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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