The Institute for the Care of Mother and Child (ÚPMD) in Prague is to build the first clinic in Central and Eastern Europe specialized in operating on unborn children, chiefly those with impaired development and birth defects.
Dr Zbyňek Straňák, head of the Fetal Medicine Center, said the most common operations are likely to involve underdeveloped lungs, diaphragmatic hernia operations and problems affecting twins, the Czech state news agency ČTK reported.
A new Kč 67 million center will be built, with the majority of funding coming from the European Union and about 16 percent from the ÚPMD itself. The Czech doctors based at the Podolí facility were trained at the University of Leuven in Belgium.
The center, which will serve the whole Czech Republic, will be outfitted with state-of-the-art ultrasound machines and equipment for endoscopic fetal surgery, as well as for a neonatal intensive care unit for follow-up surgery and resuscitation-surgical treatment of critically ill newborns.
