Placental chorioangioma with an emphasis on rare giant placental chorioangioma and associated maternal and perinatal outcome: Clinicopathological study in a single centre

CONTEXT: Giant placental chorioangiomas (GPC) are exceedingly rare and harbour potential to cause feto-maternal complications with resultant morbidity. AIMS & MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study using details from Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Pathology is done to study the various clinical and pathological features of placental chorioangiomas with a special emphasis on the rare GPCs and associated complications. RESULTS: Over a period of 16 years, 20 cases were diagnosed as chorioangioma in our institution. 60% of these occurred in primigravida (n=12) and 71% cases carried a female foetus. Only 25% cases were > 30 years. Maternal and foetal complications occurred in 85% and 50% cases. Pre-term labour was the common maternal complication and foetal death/stillbirth was the most common foetal complication. There were 15 cases of GPC, 73% occurred in primigravida (n=11) and 75% of cases carried a female foetus. There were no cases of maternal death or recurrence. Primigravidity was associated with maternal complication in contrast to multigravidity (P = 0.049). Mean age of mothers with maternal complications and those without maternal complications reached statistical significance (P = 0.001). Though histologically all the cases were similar, calcification and infarction were seen exclusively in GPC cases. CONCLUSION: GPCs are rare and our data adds evidence to use 4cm as an optimum cut-off in the definition. GPCs were associated with a high percentage of primigravidity, female foetus, and poorer outcome of pregnancy. Routine examination of placenta in unexplained foetal/perinatal demise must be stressed to detect microscopic evidence of chorioangioma.