Glencoe Baby's Birth At UAB Very Special Due To Neck Mass Requiring 'Exit' Procedure

Doctors at UAB Hospital today performed an unusual procedure on a Glencoe, Ala., baby while he was partially outside the womb during Cesarean delivery. The EXIT (ex utero intrapartum treatment ) procedure was necessary because a mass of tissue had grown partially around the fetus’s neck, threatening to keep him from breathing on his own once he was separated from his mother. This is only the third such procedure performed at UAB in the past eight years.

May 3, 2006

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Doctors at UAB Hospital today performed an unusual procedure on a Glencoe, Ala., baby while he was partially outside the womb during Cesarean delivery. The EXIT (ex utero intrapartum treatment ) procedure was necessary because a mass of tissue had grown partially around the fetus’s neck, threatening to keep him from breathing on his own once he was separated from his mother. This is only the third such procedure performed at UAB in the past eight years.

Christian David Moye was born at 9:43 a.m., just moments after doctors slipped an airway down the baby’s windpipe and before he was separated from the placenta. Doctors said the procedure assured that the baby would benefit from the continuance of fetal-placental circulation until he was fully delivered.

The procedure took almost 20 minutes to complete. If he had been delivered before his airway was secured, he would have been at risk for brain damage or death. The full-term baby weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces at birth.

The team of specialists was led by high-risk obstetrician Debora F. Kimberlin, M.D.; pediatric surgeon Keith E. Georgeson, M.D., anesthesiologist Douglas B. Shaw, M.D.; and neonatologist Robert L. Schelonka, M.D.

The newborn was transferred to Children’s Hospital, in Birmingham, shortly after birth. Surgery to remove the cervical teratoma, or neck mass, could come as early as tomorrow. Such masses are almost always benign and successfully removed.

The child’s parents are Ashley White, 22, and Wesley David Moye II, 23, both of Etowah County, near Glencoe, Ala. This is the first child for White, who is listed in Good condition by the hospital this afternoon.

The new mother said the teratoma was discovered in late December during a routine maternity visit in her community. She was quickly referred to UAB’s high-risk maternity service, where obstetrician Richard O. Davis, M.D., of the Division of Maternal and Fetal Medicine, coordinated her care.

If the baby had been born in the usual manner, only a very short time would have been available for doctors to complete the delicate procedure of inserting the breathing tube to prevent oxygen deprivation. The procedure also required doctors to provide medication to completely relax the mother’s uterus while the baby’s head and chest were outside the womb during the first portion of the delivery.