Chronic Umbilical Cord Entanglements Causing Intrauterine Fetal Demise in the Second Trimester

Entanglement of the umbilical cord with fetal body parts is known to occur in early pregnancy. This can potentially compromise the cord blood flow and cause fetal demise. We report 3 instances of intrauterine fetal deaths in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy with longstanding cord entanglement. The cor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pediatric and developmental pathology 2011-05, Vol.14 (3), p.252-254
Main Authors: Gambhir, Prakash S., Gupte, Sanjay, Kamat, Amit D., Patankar, Amit, Kulkarni, Vinayak D., Phadke, Mrudula A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Female
Fetal Death - etiology
Fetal Death - pathology
Humans
Male
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications - pathology
Pregnancy Trimester, Second
Umbilical Cord - pathology
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Summary:Entanglement of the umbilical cord with fetal body parts is known to occur in early pregnancy. This can potentially compromise the cord blood flow and cause fetal demise. We report 3 instances of intrauterine fetal deaths in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy with longstanding cord entanglement. The cord had left impressions of entanglement on the entrapped growing fetal part. Restricted movements of the fetus due to cord entanglement led to reduced spiraling of the umbilical cord. Our case series demonstrates that tight entanglement of fetal body parts by the umbilical cord can cause fetal demise in the 2nd trimester. This event is associated with a straight umbilical cord. Thus, the presence of reduced spiraling in intrauterine fetal demise warrants a search for possible cord entanglement along with established causes, such as chromosomal and congenital anomalies.
ISSN:1093-5266
1615-5742
DOI:10.2350/10-06-0846-CR.1