FETAL DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT COMMITTEE

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Mission Statement 

The mission of the Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy (FD&T) Committee is to establish evidence-based best practice guidelines in the area of fetal and perinatal medicine and educate the pediatric surgical community in the area of fetal medicine. To achieve this goal, the FD&T Committee will build collaborations with other organizations to conduct high-quality clinical research in the field of fetal medicine. The FD&T Committee will disseminate knowledge to the pediatric surgical community including pediatric surgeons, other healthcare practitioners, patients and their families. The FD&T Committee will advocate for fetal patients, their families, and fetal providers within the pediatric surgical community.

Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Committee Resources

The APSA FD&T Committee has assembled a series of resources for the practicing pediatric surgeon, pediatric surgery fellow, and resident. The intention of these resources is to provide educational materials for disease pathology, risk stratification, and management, as well as to augment prenatal counseling conversations that many providers are tasked with leading, regardless of their expertise in fetal surgical interventions.

• FD&T Reference Handbook for Pediatric Surgeons: 
  • Serves as a reference for the pediatric surgeon in preparation for counseling a family with a fetal anomaly and as a useful educational tool for the residents and fellows in training.
• FD&T Prenatal Counseling Series:
  • Provides expert guidance including differential diagnosis, evaluation, prenatal counseling and considerations and postnatal considerations for select fetal anomalies

• APSA NAT FDT Committee Page:
  • The APSA NAT FD&T Committee Page has links to several chapters on relevant fetal pathologies and procedures authored by the FD&T committee, an Articles of Interest list of many seminal articles in fetal surgery, a list of ongoing clinical trials in fetal therapy, and more!
• Family Education Brochures:
  • Information for families faced with a complex fetal diagnosis
  • Brochures published by the committee: Myelomeningocele

Manuscripts Published by the Committee:

• Stokes SC, Rubalcava NS, Theodorou CM, Bhatia MB, Gray BW, Saadai P, Russo RM, McLennan A, Bichianu DC, Austin MT, Marwan AI, Alkhoury F; APSA Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy Committee. Recognition and management of traumatic fetal injuries. 2022 Apr;53(4):1329-1344. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2022.01.037. Epub 2022 Feb 5. PMID: 35144809.

APSAsodes from the Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Committee*

Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Committee video (History of Fetal surgery)