Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 10, 2026
Mouse Model of Surgical Uterine Injury and Subsequent Pregnancy Outcomes
Published on: June 27, 2025
Is pathologic confirmation of placental abruption more reliable in cases due to chronic etiologies compared with
Background:
Pathology laboratories often receive requests for confirmation of abruption; however, pathologically, abruption can only be confirmed by the presence of adherent blood clot on the maternal surface that is indenting the underlying placental parenchyma.
Design:
We evaluated whether abruptions due to more chronic underlying medical conditions are more likely to have a retained indenting retroplacental clot that is detectable by the pathologist than abruptions due to acute etiologies. This was a retrospective review from January 1995 to June 2012 of cases with a clinical and/or pathologic diagnosis of abruption. Data were analyzed utilizing Fisher's exact test.
Results:
Ninety-six cases had sufficient available information for analysis. There was a significant association between pathologic identification of abruption and chronic risk factors (P=0.03). Twenty-five percent of cases with acute risk factors and 60% of cases with chronic risk factors had abruption confirmed at pathologic evaluation (P=0.12).
Conclusion:
Pathologically confirmable abruption is associated with chronic risk factors. There was a trend towards chronic risk factors leading to greater likelihood of pathologic confirmation of abruption than acute risk factors, but it did not reach statistical significance.
