Laparoscopic Management of Pregnancy in a Patient with Uterus Didelphys, Obstructed Hemivagina, and Ipsilateral Renal Agenesis

Abstract

Pregnancy in a rudimentary uterine horn is a rare and potentially lethal condition. The highest risk of rupture is reported to be during the late first and second trimester. The risk of rupture correlates with the thickness of the myometrium surrounding the fetal pole. In 2005, a 20-year-old woman was incompletely diagnosed by imaging studies and laparoscopy to have an absent right kidney, a bicornate uterus with a right rudimentary uterine horn and a single cervix, a transverse vaginal septum with hematocolpos, and endometriosis caused by reflux menstruation. The transverse vaginal septum was excised, and the surgeon observed a single cervix. Oral contraceptives were prescribed as complementary treatment for the endometriosis and associated dysmenorrhea. In 2009, magnetic resonance imaging confirmed resolution of hematocolpos and revealed a right cervix connected to the right horn of a uterus didelphys and covered by a partial longitudinal vaginal septum. The patient had a contraception failure and presented in 2010 at 9 6/7 weeks’ gestation. By ultrasonography and subsequent magnetic resonance imaging, the pregnancy was in the right uterus and the corpus luteum was on the left ovary. The myometrium was thinned to 2 to 3 mm atop the gestational sac. Using the Harmonic ACE, laparoscopic excision of the right fallopian tube and a supracervical right hysterectomy with an intact pregnancy was performed. This case supports the Acién hypothesis that the vagina forms from both Müllerian and Wolffian duct elements, and it illustrates the risk for uterine rupture when pregnancy forms in a rudimentary structure; presumed transperitoneal migration of an ovum that was captured by the opposite fallopian tube; and surgical management of the in situ pregnancy by laparoscopic supracervical excision of the rudimentary uterine body.