Primary Ovarian Ectopic Pregnancy: Still a Medical Challenge

To investigate the clinical presentation of women with primary ovarian pregnancy diagnosed in recent years and to compare it to tubal pregnancy.

Seven women treated for primary ovarian pregnancy from 2002-2013 were retrospectively identified and compared to 42 women with tubal pregnancies (involving either tubal rupture or tubal abortion) operated on during the same period. In the ovarian pregnancy group the pathology examination confirmed primary ovarian pregnancy according to the Spiegelberg criteria.

Seven women underwent surgery for primary ovarian pregnancy during the study period. Five women presented with hemodynamic shock. A ruptured ovarian pregnancy was identified in all cases. Wedge resection was performed by laparotomy in 1 case and by laparoscopy in 6 cases. The mean estimated blood loss was significantly higher in those women with ovarian versus tubal pregnancy (1057.1 ± 472.1 mL vs. 250.2 ± 241.5 mL, respectively, p<0.001). Moreover, a statistically significant difference was found when we compared postoperative hospitalization days (2 ± 0.6 vs. 1.3 ± 0.7, respectively; p=0.01) in the ovarian pregnancy group as compared with the tubal pregnancy group.

Primary ovarian ectopic pregnancy is still a major challenge for early diagnosis and treatment; it is associated with rupture and massive intraabdominal bleeding.