Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Bambolim reported its first case of an ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy in the liver and occurring outside the uterus) this month. A GMC team conducted a surgery and was able to save the life of the woman.
Addressing the media, GMC Dean Dr Shivanand Bandekar said that the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology dealt with this rare case scenario this month when a 25-year-old woman with two living children hailing from Valpoi presented to casualty with severe pain in the right upper abdomen and vomiting.
Dr Shikha Lawande and Dr Glory, both residents in the Radiology Department did the preliminary USG and were astonished to see a live two-and-half month foetus in the right lobe of the liver with blood in the peritoneal cavity. The diagnosis was confirmed by radiology Professor and Head of Department Dr Jeevan Vernekar and Radiology Associate Professor Dr Sanjay Sardessai.
Bandekar said that emergency laparotomy was performed by a joint team of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology consisting of Associate Professor Dr Ajit A Nagarsekar, Professor and HoD of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Dr Guruprasad Pednekar and surgical team consisting of Assistant Professor Dr Dattaprasad Samant and Professor and HoD, Department of Surgery Dr Francis P Noronha and Anaesthesia team led by Assistant Professor Dr Pabitra Ghoshal.
Surgical excision of segment six of the liver containing the pregnancy was done and the patient received multiple transfusions. The patient was discharged on February 14 post operation day.
According to Bandekar, pregnancy occurring outside the uterus is known and is called ectopic pregnancy. The commonest site for such pregnancy is the fallopian tubes.
One of the rarest sites for the ectopic pregnancy is the liver. Over the last 60 years only about 40 such rarest of rare cases have been reported in the world.
In India, two cases were reported, one in Lucknow in 1987 and another in Delhi in 2012. While patient of Lucknow had died, that of Delhi including her child had survived, Dr Bandekar said.
