Lithopedion: The rare condition that led to a Brazilian woman's death after carrying a calcified fetus for more than 50 years
The case, considered extremely rare by experts, was discovered when an indigenous woman was admitted to the Ponta Porã Regional Hospital complaining of abdominal pain. The patient lived in a settlement located in the municipality of Areal Moreira, in the southern region of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Petrified fetus of a baby, conceived by a 75-year-old Moroccan woman in early 2013, who would have remained pregnant for more than 50 years - Photo Reproduction
An 81-year-old woman was taken to the Ponta Porã Regional Hospital, in the south of Mato Grosso do Sul, due to abdominal pain. The city's health secretary, Patrick Derzi, reported that doctors discovered she was carrying a calcified fetus. It is suspected that this "stone baby" was present in her abdomen for an incredible 56 years, since her last pregnancy. This phenomenon is extremely rare, according to experts. The patient, an indigenous woman who lived in a settlement in Areal Moreira, died after surgery to remove the fetus.
Discovery
According to the health secretary of Ponta Porã, the elderly woman, who lived in Aral Moreira, located 84 kilometers from the municipality, was being treated for a urinary tract infection in her city of origin. Due to the deterioration of her health condition, she needed to be taken to the Regional Hospital (HR) in a neighboring location. The HR medical team initially suspected cancer. On March 14, the patient was admitted to the Ponta Porã Regional Hospital with a serious infection.
On the same day, a 3D tomography for a more accurate assessment of the diagnosis. According to information from the Ponta Porã Health Department, the examination revealed the presence of a calcified fetus in the patient's abdomen. Upon discovering the elderly woman's condition, the hospital's obstetrics team was called to perform a surgical intervention to remove the fetus. After surgery, the patient was transferred to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), but died the following day. According to secretary Patrick Dezir, the cause of death was severe sepsis, caused by a urinary infection.
Lithopedion
Lithopedion is an extremely rare condition that develops from an ectopic pregnancy, in which the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, leading to fetal death and calcification. Although pregnancy must occur inside the uterus, in some circumstances, it can occur elsewhere. This situation often goes unnoticed, as the baby does not cause obvious symptoms, such as sharp pain or significant bleeding.
Image of the stone baby - Photo: Reproduction
Over time, the foreign body remains in the woman's abdomen. The mother's immune system, at a certain point, identifies the fetus as a foreign body and surrounds it with a calcified substance to protect it against infections. This formation, known as "stone baby", can remain undetected for decades, potentially leading to complications in the future. Therefore, an accurate diagnosis is crucial to avoid such complications.
This situation is more prevalent in developing countries, indicating a lack of diagnosis in the acute phase. This suggests that, at some point, the patient experienced painful symptoms, but the diagnosis of an abdominal or ectopic pregnancy, which resulted in rupture, and the consequent displacement of the fetus into the abdomen, was not made.
According to the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), most patients have no symptoms and the diagnosis usually occurs incidentally during imaging studies. Possible side effects include abdominal pain, chronic constipation, intestinal obstruction, fistula formation, and pelvic abscesses.
Rare Condition
This is an extremely rare condition that occurs in cases of ectopic pregnancy, where the fetus is not reabsorbed by the mother's body and ends up calcifying. It is as if a calcium shell forms around the fetus. Around 60% of cases occur in women over 40 years old. Negligence in removing the fetus after death is confirmed may contribute to this phenomenon.
This neglect is often linked to a lack of knowledge and access to health care, especially among low-income populations. Experts explain that it is possible that the woman does not notice the calcification, which makes it even more difficult to identify the dead fetus. There are typically no symptoms associated with this condition, meaning that diagnosis often occurs years after pregnancy, often by chance.
Other Cases
Since 1582, when a lithopedion was identified in France, fewer than 400 cases of this rare phenomenon have been recorded. The word "lithopedion" has Greek origins and means "stone child". One of the documented cases of this unusual pregnancy is that of Chilean Estela Meléndez, who, in 2015, at the age of 92, discovered that she had been carrying a fetus in her belly for more than 60 years.
The discovery occurred when Estela went to the hospital due to an injury to her elbow and, during examinations, calcifications were found. She only realized what had happened many years after the death of the fetus, when she underwent a scraping, which, unfortunately, was unsuccessful. Over the years, Estela also suffered from abdominal pain, without understanding the cause until then.
In 2014, Brazilian Joaquina Costa Leite, an 84-year-old woman living in Natividade, a rural area of Tocantins, made a surprising discovery: there had been a seven-month-old calcified fetus in her body for more than 40 years. A more recent case, documented in the "Journal of Medical Case Reports", reports the death of a Congolese woman in March 2023, after carrying a fetus for 50 years. This woman, a refugee in the United States, discovered the lithopedius phenomenon after suffering from severe stomach cramps and indigestion. The fetus calcified and adhered to its intestine, interfering, according to the publication, with the absorption of nutrients vital for its survival.
