[Acute-placental dysfunction by villous-maturation defect and late-fetal mortality]

The placental histological examination is essential in the assessment of stillbirths, especially those of third trimester, which are often of placental origin by chronic placental dysfunction and sometimes by acute dysfunction. The physiopathogenesis of the latter remains obscure.

Three stillbirths, one per partum and two after 38 and 39 weeks gestation, caused by acute-placental dysfunction by villous maturation defect were studied. The maternal aetiological investigations and the fetal autopsies were normal. Placentas were pale. Villi were numerous, normal size but fibrous, showing a severely reduced vascularization and a lack of syncytium-capillary membranes.

Only one author studied the villous maturation defect. He defines this entity by the same characteristics as that noted in our observations. Its incidence would be of 5.7% and would be associated with fetal death only after the eighth month in 2.3 % of cases, with a risk of recurrence estimated at 10%.

This entity, probably underestimated, must be indexed systematically in any late fetal death and any unexplained per partum asphyxia, in order to help the couple overcome a fetal death and to give doctors a medicolegal support.