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Updated: Jul 13, 2026
State of the Art Cranial Ultrasound Imaging in Neonates
Published on: February 2, 2015
Neonate with a single umbilical vessel: a case report
D Radford Shanklin1, Jie Zhang
1Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, 930 Madison Avenue, Suite 599, Memphis, TN 38163, USA. radfordcrawford@juno.com
Background:
The respiratory, metabolic and excretory functions of the placenta provide maintenance of fetuses in utero even in the presence of severe malformations that preclude postnatal survival.
Case:
A 17-year-old secundigravida delivered a 1,075-g liveborn in the 30th week of gestation. The infant was severely malformed, with gastroschisis and a short umbilical cord, and survived for 62 minutes after birth. The placenta was examined pathologically, and a complete an autopsy was performed. The cord measured 13.0 cm long, the limit for absolute shortness. An 8.0-cm segment was found to contain only 1 umbilical vessel, basically a vein, with segmental arterial pads.
Conclusion:
The concurrence in a liveborn infant of malformations so severe it could not be sustained, a segment of umbilical cord with only 1 vessel and postnatal survival of 62 minutes emphasizes the biologic distinction between existence and vitality.
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