Woman gives birth with partial uterus

13 September 2006

BRUSSELS — A 29-year-old women gave birth in the Antwerp University Hospital on Monday after having part of her uterus surgically removed last year.

The woman had been diagnosed with cervical cancer, but Belgian doctors opted to only remove part of her uterus, allowing her to still become pregnant.

It is the first time that such an operation and eventual pregnancy had occurred in Flanders, the hospital said.

The woman was operated on at the start of 2005. Antwerp University Hospital doctors opted at the time for a “radical trachelectomy”, a new technique that allows the woman to still become pregnant.

The surgery is performed on younger women with early cancer of the cervix. The surgeon tries to remove all of the cancer, but leave the internal opening of the cervix behind.

The cervix and the upper part of the vagina are removed, but the rest of the uterus is left in place. The lymph nodes in the pelvis are also removed to see if the cancer has spread.

A stitch is made at the bottom of the uterus (leaving a small opening) which takes the place of the cervix during pregnancy. The stitch will support a growing pregnancy until the baby can be born by Caesarean section.

And some six months after undergoing the surgery, the woman became pregnant. She gave birth on Monday and both mother and baby are doing fine.

Subject: Belgian news