GUWAHATI, May 15 � A complicated surgical procedure was recently carried out by local doctors in a Guwahati hospital.
A 35-year-old woman from Karimganj with eight years of infertility was treated with a procedure called IUI (artificial insemination) recently in Pratiksha Hospital, Guwahati� by Dr Mujibur Rahman MD, FIUOG (USA), consultant gynecologist and IVF specialist of that hospital.
The lady�conceived following the treatment, but on subsequent sonography it was found that the lady was�carrying quintiplets in her womb. Multiple pregnancies following such assisted reproductive techniques are common, but it is very rare to have five babies.
Although there were only a few cases of five babies reaching term and delivering healthy babies, it involves a lot of risk to the babies and to the mother.
Keeping this in view, and to preserve� the pregnancy, the team of doctors decided on a sophisticated procedure called Multifetal Reduction, where some babies are destroyed inside the womb by injecting a chemical called KCL inside the heart of the babies. This procedure requires a level of expertise and sophistication.
After taking due consent of the parents and explaining� all the risks involved, the procedure was successfully carried out on May 8. Three babies were destroyed in the womb with injections and remaining two babies are doing fine.
According to an official statement, such procedures of destroying embryos of multiple pregnancy involves some risk to the mother and the other live babies, it also raises moral and ethical questions. But on the whole the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.
