title: The intersection of fetal palliative care and fetal surgery: Addressing mortality and quality of life.
abstract: Over the last few decades, the fields of fetal surgery and maternal-fetal medicine have developed interventions aimed at modifying severe diseases in utero. Innovations in fetal approaches to congenital diaphragmatic hernia and myelomeningocele have shown considerable promise in modifying the clinical course with fetal intervention. Patients who present to fetal centers to be evaluated for these interventions face challenging decisions that directly relate to questions of mortality and quality of life. This article explores how clinicians might apply the tools and principles of fetal palliative care to supporting a woman and her family who are considering fetal surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; The Children׳s Hospital of Philadelphia, 3401 Civic Center Blvd, 2nd Floor, Main, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Electronic address: munson@email.chop.edu.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Munson
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D046128:Fetal Therapies; D065630:Hernias, Diaphragmatic, Congenital / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008591:Meningomyelocele / Q000601:surgery*; D009026:Mortality; D010166:Palliative Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: Congenital diaphragmatic hernia; Fetal surgery; Myelomeningocele; Palliative care