A Case of Acardiac Fetus in a Triplet Pregnancy.

Yu, Jeong Wan; Choi, Kyu Yeon; Seo, Ki Won; Cho, Hyun Chul; Kim, Young Hwa; Chun, Yi Kyeong

Case Report

Korean Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 2001;44(7):1367-1371.
Published online July 1, 2001.

A Case of Acardiac Fetus in a Triplet Pregnancy.

Jeong Wan Yu, Kyu Yeon Choi, Ki Won Seo, Hyun Chul Cho, Young Hwa Kim, Yi Kyeong Chun

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Chunan, Korea.
²Department of Diagnostic Radiology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Chunan, Korea.
³Department of Pathology college of medicine, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine Samsung Cheil Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Acardiac fetus in triplet pregnancy is a very rare, fatal congenital anomaly that had not been reported in Korea. It only occurs in multiple gestations associated with placental vascular anastomoses between the affected fetus and its co-twin. The major complications associated with acardiac fetus in triplet pregnancy are congestive heart failure in normal pumping fetus, maternal polyhydramnios, preterm labor, intrauterine fetal death, etc, and perinatal diagnosis can be made with the perinatal ultrasonographic examination. We report a case of acardiac fetus in a spontaneous triplet pregnancy at 23 weeks of gestational age with a brief review of the literature.

Key Words: Acardiac fetus, Triplet pregnancy