\n<\/p>\n
Possibility that specialist procedure to treat Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH), currently undertaken overseas, may move to Ireland<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
The Rotunda Hospital hosted a meeting on February 26, bringing together leading Irish and international clinicians, to look at the rare Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) condition which affects one in 2,500 newborn babies. Attended by Health Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, the meeting heard from clinical experts from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Belgium and Australia who are looking at responses to CDH and advancing maternal, fetal and neonatal care in Ireland.<\/p>\n
Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) is a rare birth condition in which the diaphragm does not form properly during pregnancy, allowing abdominal organs such as the liver or intestines to move into the chest cavity. This restricts lung development and can result in severe breathing difficulties after birth. CDH often requires complex, multidisciplinary care before and after delivery.<\/p>\n
Currently Irish mothers whose babies have been diagnosed with severe CDH and who may be eligible for fetal intervention, have to travel to Belgium for this specialised treatment, as it is not currently available in Ireland. Sometimes they have to remain there for six weeks. But the participants at the Rotunda Hospital meeting heard that it can be possible, with ongoing collaboration and clinical progress, that the FETO procedure to respond to CDH can be moved to Ireland, with the possibility of an all-island solution.<\/p>\n
The delivery of Fetal Endoscopic Tracheal Occlusion (FETO) in Ireland would allow families to access life\u2011saving care without traveling abroad, therefore reducing the emotional, financial and logistical strain, and ensuring babies receive timely treatment close to home.<\/p>\n
A world-leading authority in the treatment of fetuses and newborns with CDH, Professor Jan Deprest \u2013 Consultant Obstetrician Gynaecologist and Fetal Surgeon at University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium \u2013 shared his expertise on advances in care, survival outcomes and future directions in the management of this rare but life-threatening condition. He presented outcomes from the TOTAL Trial, a landmark international study examining the effectiveness of Fetoscopic Endoluminal Tracheal Occlusion (FETO) in severe cases of CDH.<\/p>\n
Health Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, said: <\/strong>\u201cThis meeting reflects Ireland\u2019s commitment to advancing maternal and neonatal care through collaboration, innovation and evidence\u2011based practice. Bringing Irish and international expertise together is essential to improving outcomes for babies diagnosed with rare and complex conditions such as Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. I welcome the work being undertaken at the Rotunda Hospital and elsewhere to explore how highly specialised fetal interventions might, in time, be delivered closer to home for families in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Sieglinde M\u00fcllers, Fetal Medicine Lead, at the Rotunda Hospital<\/strong>, said:\u00a0 <\/strong>\u201cAdvances in prenatal diagnosis and fetal therapy have significantly improved outcomes in recent years, although CDH remains a critical condition, which carries a significant mortality and morbidity. Our meeting represented a significant step forward in improving outcomes for babies with CDH in Ireland. By bringing international and Irish experts together and fostering collaboration across the island, we can look to offer families access to life-saving therapies closer to home, reducing the stress, cost and significant disruption that comes with traveling abroad for treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe welcomed the opportunity to hear the experience of our colleagues in neonatology and paediatrics, who care for these babies and children in the longer term, so that we can be better informed regarding the totality of the condition for the child and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n A key moment of the meeting was a special address from Clare Lawlor Lynch,<\/strong> former patient of the Rotunda Hospital and University Hospital Galway, who shared her family\u2019s recent FETO experience with baby Oscar, offering a personal insight into the impact of the innovation in fetal medicine. She noted that families such as her own family deserve the chance to fight for their future, at home in Ireland.<\/p>\n There remains a high mortality rate and in spite of FETO, 50 per cent of babies still die.\u00a0 Parents are carefully counselled regarding this prior to the procedure.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a number of CDH registries internationally, however these don\u2019t always include prenatal information or information from before birth.\u00a0 With our colleagues in Children\u2019s Health Ireland at Crumlin, the Coombe, the National Maternity Hospital and the Rotunda, we are aiming to establish an Irish CDH registry to gather real-world information about the true burden of CDH in Ireland. This will help inform us better and improve our counselling with parents when we make a diagnosis of CDH in the pregnancy,\u201d said Dr. M\u00fcllers.<\/p>\n The meeting took place in the Rotunda\u2019s Pillar Room, with a welcome address from Professor Sean Daly, Master of the Rotunda Hospital<\/strong>, who outlined the hospital\u2019s leadership role in Maternal-Fetal medicine and CDH care. Dr Sieglinde M\u00fcllers, Fetal Medicine Lead at the Rotunda Hospital<\/strong>, presented findings on CDH-related mortality, drawing on data from the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (NPEC), located in Cork, to highlight national trends, outcomes, and areas for future improvement.<\/p>\n The event marks a significant step forward for a possible all-Ireland collaboration in CDH care, with referrals potentially from across the island. Reflecting this possible cross-border approach, Dr Caitriona Monaghan, Fetal Medicine Lead at the Royal Victoria Hospital<\/strong>, Belfast, talked about the Northern Ireland experience.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Possibility that specialist procedure to treat Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH), currently undertaken overseas, may move to Ireland The Rotunda Hospital hosted a meeting on February 26, bringing together leading Irish and international clinicians, to look at the rare Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) condition which affects one in 2,500 newborn babies. Attended by Health Minister, Jennifer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Rotunda-CDH-Conference-3-620.webp.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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