JRSM > Volume 96, Number 8 > Pp. 423

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Abdominal pregnancy and lithopaedion

Peter Noble

London NW3, UK

E-mail: pjnoble{at}blueyonder.co.uk

Irving Loudon (May 2003 JRSM¹) is quite right to accept the plausibility of the French Renaissance writer Boaistau's account of a ‘five-year pregnancy’. Two Renaissance physicians, d'Ailleboust and de Provanchères,² describe an even more remarkable case. In 1582 in the French town of Sens, a necropsy was performed on a Madame Chatri who died at the age of 68. She had become pregnant for the first and only time 28 years previously. A normal pregnancy, prolonged labour and breaking of her waters ensued without the delivery of a child. Her abdomen remained swollen, hard and painful throughout her life. At necropsy her abdomen contained a perfectly formed and calcified ‘newborn’ female child. An earlier JRSM article by Bondeson³ recounts the story in some detail, provides copies of contemporary illustrations and traces the subsequent history of the ‘stone baby’. Eminent figures who examined the baby and made drawings included Ambroise Paré⁴ and Thomas Bartholin.⁵ The stone baby became famous and was exhibited in various centres before disappearing from the museum of the king of Denmark during the nineteenth century.

The condition in which a fetus, probably extrauterine, remains in the abdominal cavity and becomes calcified is known as ‘lithopaedion’. A Medline search of lithopaedion/lithopedion yields 56 articles which, taken together, provide information on over 300 cases. The condition is compatible with a long life expectancy and there are several instances of the mother carrying the calcified fetus for over 50 years. Recent cases are from countries deficient in obstetric and surgical care; probably many cases go unreported. For instance, the last to come to my attention was by way of a report last year in the French newspaper, Le Figaro: Professor Ouazzani of Rabat, Morocco, successfully removed a calcified fetus weighing four kilos from the abdomen of a woman 46 years after her last pregnancy.⁶

REFERENCES

1. Loudon I. A five-year pregnancy. J R Soc Med 2003;96:245 -7[Free Full Text]

2. d'Ailleboust J, de Provanchères S. Le Prodigeux Enfant Petrefié de la Ville de Sens. Sens: J Savine,1582

3. Bondeson J. The earliest known case of a lithopaedion. J R Soc Med 1996;89:13 -18[Abstract]

4. Paré A. In: Céard J, ed. Des Monstres et des Prodiges. Geneva: Droz, 1996

5. Bartholin T. Historiarum Anatomicarum Rariorum. Amsterdam: Estienne, 1654

6. Le Figaro, 28 October2002

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This Article Full Text (PDF) Send a Quick Comment Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when Quick Comments are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Noble, P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Social Bookmarking                      What's this?