LITHOPAEDION

A lithopaedion or lithopedion is ancient Greek word meaning a stone baby. It is a rare phenomenon which occurs most commonly when a fetus dies during an ectopic pregnancy or during an abdominal pregnancy. The chance of abdominal pregnancy is one in 11,000 pregnancies. If the dead fetus is too large to be re-absorbed by the mother’s body it becomes a foreign body to the mother’s immune system. To protect from possible infection, the mother’s body will encase the fetus in a calciferous substance. The fetus is gradually mummified becoming a stone baby. Lithopedion may occur from 14 weeks’ gestation to full term. It is not unusual for a stone baby to remain undiagnosed for decades and found incidentally when taking plain x-rays films for various other investigations. This paper describes the known case of this phenomenon. The present case was about a 70 year old post-menopausal woman attended the Gynecology OPD with the complaints of mass per vaginum since 5 years. X-ray and Ultrasound scan of abdomen and pelvis revealed a lithopaedion.