Huntington Baby and the USC Institute for Maternal-Fetal Health (IMFH) offer a Fetal Surgery Program to identify and treat medical problems in children while they are still in the womb.
COVID-19 Update
In addition to enhanced safety protocols including pre-surgical screenings, and enhanced cleaning and sterilization processes, we are carefully and thoughtfully following guidelines from the American College of Surgeons.
Contact your surgeon’s office for more information.
Recently, Huntington Hospital neonatal surgeon Ramen Chmait, M.D. performed groundbreaking fetal surgery to help repair a baby’s spinal cord while still in the womb.
Read more about this groundbreaking achievement at Huntington Hospital in our press release.
What is Fetal Surgery?
This technique, called “operative fetoscopy,” is performed under local anesthesia via an incision. We are one of very few hospitals in the country to treat the fetus as a patient.
Examples of the types of procedures we perform:

- Twin-twin transfusion syndrome
- Monochorionic twins with selective intrauterine growth restriction
- A cardiac/TRAP sequence and other discordant anomalous twins
- Lower urinary tract obstruction (posterior urethral valves)
- Congenital diaphragmatic hernia
- Fetal and placental tumors, fetal cardiac abnormalities, and amniotic bands, etc.
Conditions we treat:
- Acardiac Twins
- Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia
- Alloimmunization and Fetal Anemia
- Amniotic Band Syndrome
- Bronchopulmonary Sequestration
- Cardiac Abnormalities of the Fetus
- Chorioangioma
- Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia
- Congenital Pulmonary Airway Malformation of the Lung
- Iatrogenic Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes
- Lower Urinary Tract Obstruction
- Pleural Effusions
- Selective Intrauterine Growth Restrictions
- Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome
- Vasa Previa
Huntington Hospital Medical Staff – IMFH & Fetal Surgery
- Ramen Chmait, M.D., assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology, University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine
- David A. Miller, M.D., professor, obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, and division chief of maternal fetal medicine, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
- Joseph Ouzounian, M.D., director, of maternal-fetal medicine fellowship training program
- Jamie W. Powers, M.D., neonatologist, corporate medical director for neonatology at Huntington Memorial Hospital
Patient Stories
View all patient stories here.
Contact Information
Los Angeles Fetal Surgery
39 Congress Street, Suite 302
Pasadena, CA 91105
Phone: 626-356-3360
Fax: 626-356-3379
Website: http://www.lafetaltherapy.org/index.html