2024-01-26 20:34:42
In the STAT episode that aired Thursday, a calcified fetus was discovered in a patient’s fallopian tube. What exactly is a calcified fetus? We’ll explain it to you.
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What is a calcified fetus?
A calcified fetus, or rather a lithopedion, is the fossilized and calcified form of a fetus that died during pregnancy, most often ectopic (the fertilized egg implants in an abnormal location).
The origin of the word lithopedion comes from Greek: litho which means “stone” and paidion which means “child”.
It is extremely rare
According to the scientific journal BMC Women’s Health, fewer than 300 cases of calcified fetuses have been reported since the first known case in France in 1582.
Such a complication would only affect 1.5 to 1.8% of ectopic pregnancies and 0.00045% of all pregnancies.
The calcified fetuses documented spent between 4 and 60 years inside the people who carried them.
PHOTO Journal of Forensic Sciences
How do you spot a calcified fetus?
Calcified fetuses are often discovered incidentally. This rare complication can actually be asymptomatic for several years.
In most of the cases reported and studied, people who unknowingly wore a lithopedion discovered it when they consulted for other health problems – linked to the calcified fetus -, such as genitourinary or gastro-intestinal problems. intestinal (as in STAT).
The mummified fetus is removed from the body of the person carrying it through surgery.
In several cases, the calcified fetus was discovered after the deaths of the women carrying them. Some of them died from complications linked to lithopedion.
PHOTO Journal of Forensic Sciences
Three types of lithopedion
There are three types of lithopedions, various scientific journals teach us.
Lithopedion: when the fetus gradually calcifies without its membranes (placenta, amniotic sac, umbilical cord) Lithokeliphopedion: when the fetus and its membranes undergo a calcification process together Lithokeliphos: when the membranes form a calcic shell and the fetus itself is almost not calcified
− With information from France Info, National Library of Medicine and the BBC
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