Identification of chorion villi in abortion specimens

The incidence of ectopic pregnancy is rising. All patients with a diagnosis of spontaneous abortion should be observed until they have been proved not to have an ectopic pregnancy. To help in identifying patients with an ectopic pregnancy, sensitive human chorionic gonadotropin tests, ultrasound, and laparoscopy have been used, yet there has been a tendency to forget the simple method of looking for chorion villi. In material specimens of 272 patients with the initial diagnosis of spontaneous abortion, the gynecologist could identify villi in 50% and the pathologist could identify another 30%. Thus, only 20% had to be observed by other methods and one-third proved to have an ectopic pregnancy.