(Photo: King George Hospital)
Andhra Pradesh doctors successfully removed the calcified remains of a 24-week-old fetus from a woman’s abdominal cavity.
The condition is known as a 'stone baby' or ‘lithopedion’, which occurs when a fetus dies during an abdominal pregnancy, is too large to be reabsorbed by the body, and subsequently becomes calcified.
The 27-year-old patient from the Anakapalle district, a mother of two, arrived at the King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam in the third week of August, suffering from severe abdominal pain.
Dr Vani, Professor of Obstetrics at KGH conducted an MRI scan, which showed the presence of a calcified mass resembling a "nest of bones" in her abdomen.
The medical team performed surgery on August 31. The operation was successful. The baby's rib cage, skull, pelvic bone, scapula, etc. were removed. The woman is recovering well.
In 2015, a 91-year-old woman in Chile was unknowingly carried a calcified fetus in her uterus for over 60 years, until the doctors spotted something on her X-ray when she suffered a fall. In her case, the calcified fetus posed no health risk.
Lithopedion is extremely rare, occurring in only 0.0054% of all pregnancies.
