Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine (May 2018)

Intra-abdominal Rupture of a Live Cervical Pregnancy with Placenta Accreta but Without Vaginal Bleeding

  • Asma Tariq,
  • Maria O’Rourke,
  • Steven J. Carstens,
  • Vicken Y. Totten

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5811/cpcem.2017.10.32029
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 2

Abstract

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We describe an unusual ruptured ectopic pregnancy. The unique features of the case include abdominal pain without vaginal bleeding; cervical implantation and a placenta accreta; and the late presentation at 16 weeks of gestation without prior symptoms. Both the initial point-of-care ultrasound and the formal ultrasound were interpreted as showing an intrauterine pregnancy. The clinical presentation was misleading; the correct diagnosis was made by magnetic resonance imaging. We show the ultrasonic images. We discuss cervical ectopic pregnancies, their diagnosis and management. The woman survived but required emergency hysterectomy and many units of blood.