International Journal of STD & AIDS > Volume 19, Number 5 > Pp. 353-354

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Case reports

An unusual case of pelvic pain: retention of fetal bone after abortion

S Samraj MRCPI DipGum ^* , S Crawford FRCS MRCOG , N Singh MD FRCPath , R Patel FRCP  and D Rowen PhD FRCP ^*

^* Department of Genitourinary Medicine; Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology; Department of Histopathology, Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton SO14 OYG; University of Southampton, UK

Correspondence to: S Samraj, Department of Genitourinary Medicine, Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton SO14 OYG, UK Email: samraj_ie{at}yahoo.co.uk

We present a 21-year-old woman with a short history of pelvic pain. The history was unremarkable apart from that of undergoing a surgical termination of pregnancy (TOP) some three-and-half years ago. Examination revealed a foreign body at the cervical os. Subsequent investigations revealed more foreign bodies within the cervical canal and uterine cavity, which were removed. Histologically these were found to be bones. Removal of the bone fragment initially discovered lead to an improvement of symptoms. Although the patient was treated for pelvic-inflammatory disease, no infective cause could be established. The condition of intrauterine retained fetal bones is recognized, but rare. Patients experiencing pelvic pain usually present sooner after TOP than did this patient. Although rare, it is an important condition to diagnose as it represents a treatable cause of infertility.

Key Words: pelvic pain • termination of pregnancy • fetal bone

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