CAIRO: The Kasr El Aini School of medicine at Cairo University launched the first specialized unit for fetal medicine in Egypt, Cairo Fetal Medicine (CAIFM). The unit aims to treat pregnant mothers, educating them about their pregnancy and conducting academic research, Dr. Mohamed Momtaz, the head of the CAIFM and a professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kasr El Aini faculty of Medicine told The Daily Star Egypt. Fetal medicine is a subspecialty of obstetrics that emphasizes early fetal diagnosis to detect potential mal-development of babies, manage them and probably prevent disability, said Dr. Rawya Ezat, the chair of the Gynecology and Obstetrics department. It deals with the fetus as a patient, added Momtaz. Early screening of fetuses could help prepare parents cope with their child's abnormalities before birth. It could also help doctors plan for the place and manner of delivery in case certain equipment is needed, or arrange for surgery or treatment inside the uterus so that abortion would become the last option, explained Momtaz. Surprisingly, most fetal abnormalities arise in mothers with low risk of having abnormal babies not mothers with a high risk factor like women who get pregnant in their forties or women who marry relatives, explained Momtaz. The unit has already trained 300 doctors from different Egyptian governorates and treated 9,000 pregnant mothers so far. It offers two-week training sessions for doctors using ultrasound technology. The course was inclusive; the professors are professional, but there was not enough equipment for all of us to work with our hands, said Dr. Ahmed Mashaly, a gynecologist in Damanhour Institute of Medicine. The unit is financially and administratively independent of state bureaucracy. It receives donations from individuals and companies, said Momtaz. The unit has big plans to create a National Project for the Early Detection of Fetal Abnormalities and Diseases. The staff already got in touch with and gained the support of some companies who they convinced to donate. They are planning to contact members of parliament and First Lady Suzanne Mubarak. The staff is very optimistic about the future of their project and the future of in-utero treatment, treating the fetus while it is inside the uterus, which is not developed in Egypt yet. Ezat believes that the idea and technology of in-utero treatment will spread. The concept itself is developed in doctors minds, and as for the government, we are going to push it, she said. If we managed to achieve all this in only one year, we can achieve more in the long run, said Momtaz. The opening of the unit was marked by the donation of General Electrics Healthcare of one of a Volusion E8 ultrasound imaging system, with its optimal four-dimensional imaging capabilities.
