Rare abdominal pregnancy case successfully treated at King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam

Rare abdominal pregnancy case successfully treated at King George Hospital, with unborn baby's skeleton removed from woman's abdomen.

The skeleton of an unborn baby was successfully removed from the abdomen of a woman by doctors at the King George Hospital (KGH), in a rare case of abdominal pregnancy. Less than 400 such cases worldwide and less than 25 in India are recorded, according to medical experts.

The 27-year-old woman, hailing from Anakapalli district, already has two kids. She had not undergone the family planning operation and became pregnant for the third time, three years ago. Her husband gave her MTP (Medical Termination of Pregnancy) kits but the foetus was not aborted and it remained in the abdomen.

The foetus grew for six months and died subsequently. The woman used to get pain in her abdomen frequently and visited many doctors at Anakapalli. They used to give her drugs, which had given her temporary relief from pain. A radiologist suspected that something unusual was there in her abdomen and suggested an MRI.

The MRI had revealed bone-like structure in the abdomen. A doctor at Anakapalli referred the woman to Dr. I Vani, gynaecologist and 3rd Unit Professor at KGH/Andhra Medical College (AMC).

“I noticed bone mass attached to her intestines and alerted the surgery team. The flesh seemed to have drained out from the woman’s body while calcified, mummified bones of the baby remained,” Dr. Vani told The Hindu, when contacted on Tuesday.

“This is known as ‘lithopedion’, a rare complication of pregnancy, which occurs when a foetus dies and becomes calcified,” she said.

Dr. Vani and Dr. M. Anand, 3rd Unit Surgery Professor, along with their team successfully performed the surgery on August 31, removed the bone mass from the woman’s body. Dr. Sivananda, Superintendent of KGH, called on the woman. He commended the medical team, Dr. Suryaprakash, anaesthetist, nursing and other staff for the successful conduct of the rare surgery.