FULL-TERM ABDOMINAL PREGNANCY: REPORT OF TWO CASES

There have been several complete surveys of the literature concerning abdominal pregnancy. Hellman and Simon1 reported 316 cases of intra-abdominal pregnancy. They included a series of fetuses from 22 weeks' gestation to term. The number of live births was 158, and the number of mothers surviving was 212. There were probably only 50 cases in which mother and baby were entirely well. Gardner and Middlebrook2 reported 22 other cases, and in only one case in the series was there a full-term surviving infant with no congenital anomalies or deformities and a surviving mother. In 1946, Beacham3 recorded 20 additional cases from the records at Charity Hospital, New Orleans, and, of the 20 cases, only nine were at term; and, further, there were only two live babies. From 1946 through 1948, approximately 49 additional cases have been reported in the literature. Only 14 of these pregnancies progressed to