Poor Fetal Outcome - Placental Pathology
When a baby is delivered, the placenta is delivered thereafter, and it is typically the physician’s job to visually inspect the placenta, including the umbilical cord, for size, shape, surface appearance, etc. In most instances, the physician will then decide whether a pathological examination of the placenta is necessary. Things such as abnormal appearance, suspected infection, and poor pregnancy outcome may lead the physician to request further placental examination.
Complications during pregnancy, such as infection, maternal disease, and decreased blood flow, can lead to a change in the placenta and the way it functions. Pathological examination of a placenta may provide insight as to events that occurred during the pregnancy and may be helpful in determining the cause of a birth injury and/or poor fetal outcome. The pathologist will perform a gross examination of the placenta and also a microscopic examination.
If you are working on a birth injury case and/or one regarding poor fetal outcome, a pathological examination of the placenta may have been performed at the time of delivery. If placental tissue blocks are available, you may decide that you would like slides re-cut so that you can have them evaluated by a placental pathologist.
For those of us who are not physicians, pathology reports concerning examinations of placentas are extremely difficult to understand. A great resource to use when reviewing a placental pathology report is a book written by Richard L. Naeye entitled Disorders of the Placenta, Fetus, and Neonate: Diagnosis and Clinical Significance.