Innovative Israeli surgery saves a cancer patient's ability to give birth
A rare robot-assisted procedure was carried out for the first time in Israel, with the potential to save women's reproductive organs from the dangers of radiation.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFUpdated: JUNE 14, 2021 14:36Pregnant woman, illustrative(photo credit: PIXABAY)
For the first time in Israel, a unique robotic procedure saved a 25-year-old woman's ability to give birth by temporarily severing her womb and ovaries on Sunday, and attaching them to the upper part of her abdominal cavity.This way, doctors were able to perform radiation treatment of a cancerous growth in the young woman's pelvis without harming her reproductive system. This joins a growing list of innovative technological solutions to gynecology related problems coming out of The Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva. The procedure had only been carried out a few times worldwide, noted Professor Ram Eitan, the head of Beilinson's gynecological oncology unit and the head of the surgical team.A few weeks ago, a 25-year-old woman arrived at Beilinson with a cancerous growth in her pelvis. Treatment of the malignant growth requires focused chemotherapy and radiation, and doing so in the pelvic area significantly damages the female reproductive system.Since the young woman plans on becoming pregnant in the future, the medical team carried out a special robotic procedure that severed the woman's womb from her birth canal, and attached it, along with her ovaries, to the upper side of her abdominal cavity.In about three months, when the patient's radiation treatment will be completed, she will return to Beilinson for a second procedure, in which her womb will be returned. Her reproductive system will once again become functional, and she will be able to give birth safely."When you are young and sick like me," the young woman explained, "the thought of future children is always present. After understanding about the chemotherapy treatments, I was presented with different options regarding my ability to give birth in the future. One of them was this innovative procedure, which has only been performed a few times worldwide. The other option was to choose the more popular method of freezing a number of ova, with an eye to surrogacy in the future."To the woman, this was a challenging question. But her desire to be a mother was stronger, and she decided to follow her heart in the hope that she would be able to give birth naturally in the future. She also noted that prior to the procedure, each stage was explained to her with great patience, so that she felt fully confident undergoing the procedure and was optimistic that the radiation treatment and the second surgery would be successful.According to Eitan, this success represents a new opportunity to carry out radiation treatments in young women and even girls' pelvic area without harming their ability to give birth, thus providing hope to many who otherwise would have had to revert to the arduous process of surrogacy.
