• Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. Electronic address: drbhartijoshi09@gmail.com.
• Am J Emerg Med. 2014 Oct 1;32(10):1299.e3-4.

AbstractAbdominal pregnancy is defined as an implantation in peritoneal cavity, exclusive of tubal, ovarian, or intraligmentary pregnancy.These pregnancies are rarely encountered and can go undiagnosed until advanced period of gestation [1]. Frequency of abdominal pregnancy has been directly related to the frequency of ectopic gestation as constituting 2% of ectopics and nearly 0.01% of all pregnancies [2-4]. These pregnancies are seen more commonly in developing countries and poses special challenges to the clinician. Advanced abdominal pregnancy is life-threatening condition and carries high risk of hemorrhage, disseminated intravascular coagulation, bowel injury, and fistulae [5]. The perinatal outcome is mainly influenced by the availability of blood supply and site of implantation [6]. Most of the fetus die in utero because of compromised environment, and those who survive face problems due to congenital malformations [3,7]. Patients of abdominal pregnancy can have variable clinical presentation, and physical examination may be inconclusive for making diagnosis [7,8]. Clinical features like irregular bleeding per vaginum, abdominal pain, dyspepsia, altered bowel habits, malpresentation, and extremely anteriorly placed cervix should raise the suspicion [2,3,8,9]. Diagnostic challenge with oxytocin stimulation, abdominal x-ray, hysterosalpingography, and ultrasonography has been used as tools to assist in diagnosis [10,11]. Magnetic resonance imaging is found to complement sonography in making accurate diagnosis and can be useful to demonstrate the relationship between fetus, the cervix, and the myometrium [12]. We hereby report a successful operative delivery of a live baby after a term extrauterine abdominal pregnancy in a multigravida in whom the diagnosis was made after laparotomy.

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