Brisbane surgeons make Australian history with first spinal surgery performed on baby in-utero

A team of Brisbane surgeons have made Australian history after successfully completing the country’s first in-utero spinal surgery.

The 24-week-old fetus was diagnosed with spina bifida, a condition that affects one in 2000 pregnancies in Australia, during an ultrasound.

Surgeons from Brisbane's Mater Hospital and Vanderbilt University Hospital in the US carried out the in-utero operation in Brisbane yesterday.

Director of Mater's maternal fetal medicine Glenn Gardener said the surgery went as well as could have been hoped and both mother and baby were recovering.

Dr Gardener said while the surgery was not a cure for spina bifida, it did significantly improve the outcome for babies diagnosed with the condition.

Doctors said the procedure could be extremely risky. 

"The risk, lets face it, is death," Dr Jay Wellons said.

"But this is where we work, on the edge of death, on the edge of risk."

Surgeon Dr Martin Wood said the size of the foetus meant any error during the operation would be magnified.

"The stakes are high when you're talking about a 750g fetus," he said.

"It's got 60mls of blood in its whole body, so one tenth of a bottle of water, and you could spill that in a heartbeat."

Spina bifida is a serious birth defect that prevents a fetus's spine and spinal cord from developing normally.

It can lead to paralysis and other complications and is normally treated with surgery once a baby is born.