Since 2011, professionals from the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital have operated fetus diagnosed with myelomeningocele or spina bifida, which is a congenital disorder that affects the central nervous system and, in life, results in paralysis of the lower extremities with difficulty or inability to walk, as well as sphincter incontinence. Until now, the procedures were very complex: surgeons opened the uterus of the pregnant women between months 4 and 5, operated the back of the fetus in order to correct the defect, and then closed again the uterus.However, since 2013, the same professionals have successfully tested a surgery that reduces the effects of the spina bifida in the fetus, using a pioneer technique called fetoscopy. This procedure is minimally invasive because it only goes through the fetus’ back with a tiny endoscope. Once the defect is corrected, researchers seal the injury with a technique conceived and developed by Dr. César Galo García Fontecha, head of the Bioengineering, Orthopedics and Surgery in Pediatrics group at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR).