A 30-year-old G6P2A4L1 is referred by her primary care provider to your high-risk obstetrics clinic for preconception counseling after a pregnancy loss at 21+4 weeks’ gestation last year, shortly after incidental transvaginal cervical shortening was noted at second-trimester fetal morphology survey. After an uncomplicated first pregnancy and term delivery, she experienced four consecutive first-trimester losses for which comprehensive investigations were unremarkable.

Despite advances in neonatal and surgical care, the outcome of severe congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is still quite poor. Improvements in the ability to diagnose and risk stratify CDH prenatally have led to investigations into whether the more severe forms of CDH may benefit from in-utero intervention to ameliorate the accompanying pulmonary hypoplasia. Fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion (FETO) is an example of a prenatal surgical intervention that was made possible by the technological advancements in endoscopic surgery. FETO is generally performed in fetuses with more severe forms of CDH to stimulate prenatal lung growth. While FETO is still considered investigational therapy and has not attained standard of care status, the results from published data to date have been promising. The complexity of FETO, coupled with the surgical and anesthetic risk to the mother and fetus requires a highly functional multidisciplinary fetal team, which includes obstetrics, pediatric surgery, and anesthesiology. This chapter will provide an in-depth understanding of the history of fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion for CDH, the operative and anesthetic approach to FETO and associated perioperative considerations. Congenital diaphragmatic hernia continues to be a disease that perplexes obstetricians, neonatologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and the entire care team.