View clinical trials related to Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.
Filter by:This study proposes to quantify inflammatory cytokine profiles in three neonatal disease states, namely, neonatal sepsis, infants with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia defect, and infants suffering cardiopulmonary failure significant enough to require heart/lung bypass treatment with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) occurs when the diaphragm fails to fully fuse and leaves a portal through which abdominal structures can migrate into the thorax. In the more severe cases, the abdominal structures remain in the thoracic cavity and compromise the development of the lungs. Infants born with this defect have a decreased capacity for gas exchange; mortality rates after birth have been reported between 40-60%. Now that CDH can be accurately diagnosed by mid-gestation, a number of strategies have been developed to repair the hernia and promote lung tissue development. Fetal tracheal occlusion is one technique that temporarily closes the herniated area with the Goldvalve balloon to allow the lungs to develop and increase survival at birth. This is a pilot study of a cohort of fetuses affected by severe CDH that will undergo FETO to demonstrate the feasibility of performing the procedure, managing the pregnancy during the period of tracheal occlusion, and removal of the device prior to delivery at BCM/Texas Children's Hospital (TCH). It is anticipated that fetal tracheal occlusion plug-unplug procedure will improve mortality and morbidity outcomes as compared with current management, but this is not a primary endpoint of the feasibility study. We will perform 20 FETO procedures on fetuses diagnosed prenatally with severe and extremely severe CDH.
Isolated Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) can be diagnosed in the prenatal period, and remains associated with a 30 % chance of perinatal death and morbidity mainly because of pulmonary hypoplasia and pulmonary hypertension. In addition, in the survivors there is a high rate of morbidity with evidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in more than 70% of cases. The risk for these can be predicted prenatally by the ultrasonographic measurement of the observed/expected lung area to head circumference ratio (O/E LHR) which is a measure of pulmonary hypoplasia. Also position of the liver is predictive of outcome. The proposing consortium has developed a prenatal therapeutic approach, which consists of percutaneous fetoscopic endoluminal tracheal occlusion (FETO) with subsequent removal of the balloon. Both procedures are performed percutaneously, there is now experience with more than 150 cases and it has been shown to be safe for the mother. We have witnessed an improvement of survival in fetuses with a predicted chance of survival of less than 30% (referred to as fetuses with severe pulmonary hypoplasia; O/E LHR <25% and liver herniation) to 55% on average. Also there is an apparent reduction in morbidity with the rate of bronchopulmonary dysplasia decreasing from the estimated rate of more than 70% to less than 40% in the same severity group. Further we have shown that results of FETO are predicted by LHR measurement prior to the procedure, so that better results can be expected in fetuses with larger lung size. Therefore we now aim to offer FETO to fetuses with moderate CDH (=O/E LHR 25-34.9%, irrespective of the liver position as well as O/E LHR 35-44.9% with intrathoracic herniation of the liver). When managed expectantly the estimated rate of postnatal survival is 55%. This trial will test whether temporary fetoscopic tracheal occlusion rather than expectant management during pregnancy, both followed by standardized postnatal management increases survival or decrease oxygen dependency at 6 months of age. The balloon will be placed between 30 and 31+6 weeks, and will be removed between 34 and 34+6 weeks.