For the first time in Italy, a baby girl undergoes surgery for a lung mass before birth
06.02.2026
For the first time in Italy, at the University Hospital of Padua, a rare benign lung malformation was removed from a newborn girl. If left untreated, the condition would have prevented the normal development of the alveoli and seriously compromised her future respiratory capacity.
The delivery was performed by cesarean section using the EXIT-to-ECMO procedure to ensure stabilization of the newborn. EXIT is a surgical technique that keeps the fetus partially in the uterus during the cesarean section while remaining connected to the placenta. ECMO, on the other hand, is a life-support machine that temporarily replaces the function of the heart and lungs outside the body, allowing these organs to rest and recover. The combination of EXIT and ECMO was necessary to guarantee adequate oxygenation for the baby after birth.
Once ECMO was correctly established, the newborn was fully delivered and the umbilical cord was clamped. She was then stabilized, transferred to an adjacent operating room, and underwent neonatal thoracotomy with removal of a 14-cm lung mass. The baby was discharged 30 days after birth with a favorable outcome and scheduled outpatient follow-up.
The management of such a complex case required close multidisciplinary collaboration and integrated expertise across several medical specialties to ensure the best possible outcome. The teams involved included Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, Otolaryngology, Anesthesia and Intensive Care, and Neonatology. The professionals involved were Paola Veronese, Director of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Unit; Cesare Cutrone and the Otolaryngology team; Vladimiro Vida, Director of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Congenital Heart Disease; Patrizia Dall’Igna, Director of Pediatric Surgery; and Francesco Leon Fascetti from the Pediatric Surgery team.
This clinical case—the first EXIT-to-ECMO procedure in Italy for a fetal lung mass—represents a model of multidisciplinary excellence in the management of complex fetal conditions and opens new, crucial perspectives for Italian fetal medicine. It further strengthens the University Hospital of Padua’s commitment to early life-saving interventions and to innovative therapeutic frontiers starting in the maternal womb.
