Members
Luc Joyeux MD, MSc
Position: PhD student Academic Department Development and Regeneration, Biomedical Sciences, Organ Systems Katholieke Universiteit KU Leuven, Faculty of Medicine
Areas of Interest: General, Bioengineering, Congenital, Imaging</br>Other Areas of Interest: Fetal Surgery
Country: Belgium
Email: lucjoyeux@gmail.com </br>Lab Website: https://www.gift-surg.ac.uk/about/people/dr-luc-joyeux/
Areas of Interest: General, Bioengineering, Congenital, Imaging
Research focus:
As general pediatric surgeon and PhD student, my research is dedicated to reduce the invasiveness of fetal spina bifida aperta (SBA) surgical repair with novel technique. It is part of the GIFT-surg project.
Open maternal-fetal surgery (OMFS) for SBA is a feasible, safe and more effective therapeutic option compared to postnatal surgery (Adzick 2011). However OMFS is an invasive technique increasing the risks of preterm rupture of membrane, preterm labor, prematurity for the fetus and the risks of the double hysterotomy (C-section) for the mother.
Therefore my research has led our group to reproduce the SBA model in the fetal lamb model and validate it using comprehensive objective outcome measures (Joyeux 2017). We have also just demonstrated that a 2-layer watertight repair via hysterotomy is the most effective technique to improve brain and spinal cord outcomes (Joyeux 2017). We are actually exploring the feasibility and safety of a similar 2-layer fetoscopic repair by single access and compare it to 3-port access. The next step would be to assess the efficacy of the safe and feasible fetoscopic techniques.
Thank you for your interest
Luc Joyeux
