title: Developmental and clinical overview of lithopaidion.
abstract: Lithopaidion, or stone child, is generally a single rare asymptomatic formation that evolves from an undiagnosed and untreated advanced abdominal pregnancy. The dead fetus is retained in the maternal abdominal cavity, which causes calcification. In this paper, we review the literature on the epidemiology, etiopathogenesis and clinical features of lithopaidion and report a unique case of lithokelyphos in a patient with an ectopic fallopian pregnancy. We propose a model to unify the data. The new word 'lithopaidion' can be utilized instead of lithopedion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Morpho-Functional Images, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Santoro
authors.forename: Antonio Simone
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Laganà
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sturlese
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Giacobbe
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Retto
authors.forename: Vittorio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Palmara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016239:MEDLINE; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D011269:Pregnancy, Abdominal / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011274:Pregnancy, Tubal