Heterotopic Pregnancy: A Case Report of Retrospective Diagnosis Following Surgical Treatment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17140/GOROJ-2-117Keywords:
Heterotopic pregnancy, Catastrophic hemorrhage, Maternal demise, LaparotomyAbstract
Introduction: Heterotopic pregnancy is a rare occurrence. Very few clinicians may come across heterotopic gestations during their careers. It is a difficult condition to diagnose. It can lead to maternal mortality.
Case presentation: I present a case of a 27-year-old patient who presented to me with signs and symptoms of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Prompt laparotomy was done and a left tubalectopic pregnancy was found with a 1.5 litres of hematoperitoneum. The patient requested premature discharge from hospital and on follow-up turned out to be having a viable intrauterine pregnancy. A retrospective diagnosis of heterotopic pregnancy was then made.
Conclusion: The diagnosis of a heterotopic pregnancy can be difficult to make. In this case where laboratory, radiological and blood transfusion services are not readily available, prompt surgery based on a clinical picture was life-saving and allowed the intrauterine pregnancy to progress.
References
Govindarajan MJ, Rajan R. Heterotopic pregnancy in natural conception. J Hum Reprod Sci. 2008; 1(1): 37-38.
Peleg D, Bar-Hawa I, Neaman-Leaven M, Ashkenazi J, Ben-Rafael Z. Early diagnosis and successful non surgical treatment of viable combined intrauterine and cervical pregnancy. Fertil Steril. 1994; 62(2): 405-408.
Jerrad D, Tso E, Salik R, Barish RA. Unsuspected heterotopic pregnancy in a woman without risk factors. AM J Emerg Med. 1992; 10(1): 58-60.
Tal J, Haddad S, Gordon N, Timor-Tritsch L. Heterotopic pregnancy after ovulation induction and assisted reproductive technologies: a literature review from 1971 to 1993. Fertil Ster-il. 1996: 66(1): 1-12.
Gruber I, Lahodny J, Illmensee K, Losch A. Heterotopic pregnancy: report of three cases. Wien Klin Wocheschr. 2002; 114(5-6): 229-232.
Noor N, Bano I, Parveen S. Heterotopic pregnancy with suc-cessful pregnancy outcome. J Hum Repro Sci. 2012; 5(2): 213- 214.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All content published in Gynecology and Obstetrics Research (GOR) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows anyone to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work — including for commercial purposes — provided appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source.
