The Development of a Fetoscope and its Clinical Application

One of the major goals in modern obstetrics is to provide more detailed information on prenatal fetal physiology. Since 1972, more than 200 amniocenteses were performed in our department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The importance of prenatal genetic diagnosis has been well recognized, indicating the necessity of the development of other methods to obtain further direct data on the fetus within the uterine cavity. Among gynecological endoscopies, fetoscopy which is the direct visualization of the fetus by introduction of an endoscope into the amniotic cavity can be expected to obtain direct information from the uterine environment in pregnant women. With our newly developed fetoscope, we investigated the clinical indications and contraindications of fetoscopy as well as future possibilities of this endoscope. Our present study indicates that further development and future benefits of fetoscopy entirely depend on the progress of laboratory techniques which can provide more accurate data through specimens obtained by fetoscopy.