Fetal gastric pseudomass at 30 weeks of gestation and its regression after 17 days of birth

• Main Authors: Balakumar Karippaliyil, Misha Kannan, Milind Karippaliyil
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2014-05-01
• Series: Indian Journal of Radiology and Imaging
• Subjects: fetal anomaly; fetal gastric pseudomass; fetal gastrointestinal anomalies
• Online Access: http://www.thieme-connect.de/DOI/DOI?10.4103/0971-3026.134403

Second trimester fetal ultrasonography (USG) occasionally reveals an echogenic intragastric mass. These masses are usually small due to the organized debris from swallowed amniotic fluid, and they normally disappear in the third trimester. This report shows a fetal intragastric echogenic mass detected at 30 weeks of gestation that persisted as a large heterogeneously echoic mass even on the 10 th day after birth. The immediate postnatal USG features were consistent with the possibility of an intragastric soft tissue mass, though abdominal  radiographs and computed tomography (CT) with oral contrast were non-specific. The baby remained asymptomatic in the neonatal period and USG scanning again after a week showed normal stomach and other intra-abdominal visceral echoes.