According to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, from the beginning of 2025 to now, doctors have received 5 cases of fetal anemia due to Parovirus B19 infection. This is the first time the department has faced this rare disease - a disease that can cause fetal death.
Parovirus B19 is a virus that often causes mild illness in adults but is especially dangerous for the fetus. In mid- gestation, viruses in the mother's body can destroy the fetal red blood cells, leading to severe anemia, thrombocytopenia, heart failure, and placental edema, causing the risk of death from the mother's womb to over 50% if not treated promptly.
Therefore, after consulting with leading experts in the Prenatal Council, the doctors decided to perform a direct blood transfusion into the umbilical cord of the fetus. After 1-2 blood transfusions, the fetal health condition was stable, the placenta was gone and was monitored until birth. Currently, the children are all healthy.
Dr. Vo Ta Son, in charge of the intervention team, emotionally shared: Each intervention is a story of science, perseverance and faith. For doctors, it is not just a technique, but the art of saving a soul right from the womb. We have to race against time because the fetus is very weak, the heart beats slowly, and the risk of losing the fetal heart right on the intervention table is always present. The moment the blood was transmitted, those small hearts beat harder was a deep impression that we would never forget.
Since 2022, the Center has deployed fetal blood transfusion techniques under in-depth ultrasound instructions. To date, 15 fetuses with severe anemia due to various reasons have been saved and born healthy. In particular, the technique requires extremely high precision, modern equipment and doctors with many years of experience in fetal intervention. This is the first time in Vietnam that fetal blood transfusion has been successfully applied to this group of particularly difficult causes, added Dr. Vo Ta Son.
According to Prof. Dr. Tran Trung Dung - General Director of Vinmec Health System, Vinmec aims to become a leading medical center in the region in the field of maternal and fetal health care. mastering fetal blood transfusion techniques is a step to affirm the capacity of the Vietnamese medical team, and at the same time demonstrates the "research - clinical - training" model that Vinmec is persistently pursuing. We hope that each successful case today will open a door of hope for many Vietnamese families in the future, said Professor Dung.
Our goal is to make the Center a leading address in Southeast Asia. Not only implementing complex intervention techniques, Vinmec also wants to become a center for training and technology transfer, a place to connect domestic and foreign experts to develop the field of Vietnamese obstetrics and gynecology - Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Ba Nha - Director of the Women's Health Center - Vinmec Times City Hospital added.
It is known that not only stopping at fetal blood transfusion, the Center is continuing to research and develop many other intervention techniques in the uterus, such as fetal melon circulation, laser burning to treat bilateral blood transfusion syndrome and fetal blood vessel intervention to treat congenital heart disease.
