Congenital soft tissue necrosis of the right anterior abdominal wall

A rare case of congenital soft tissue necrosis of the right anterior abdominal wall in a newborn baby is described. The defect, which measured 10 X 8 cm at birth, appeared spontaneously and healed completely within 8 weeks with conservative management. Only one other similar case is known to have been reported in the literature hitherto, but in that patient the "ulcer" was presumed to have been caused by faulty technique in fetoamniography: the fetus was traumatized by the needle used to inject the contrast material. In the present case, the etiology was unknown.