In a shocking and rare medical occurrence, doctors in India have discovered a 12-week-old foetus growing inside a woman’s liver, marking the country’s first reported case of intrahepatic ectopic pregnancy — and only a handful of such cases worldwide.
The 25-year-old woman had initially complained of severe abdominal pain and nausea. Suspecting a routine ectopic pregnancy, doctors at a leading hospital in New Delhi were stunned when imaging scans revealed something far more unusual — the foetus had implanted and was developing inside her liver tissue, a condition so rare that it has left the global medical community astounded.
“This is a medical anomaly,” said Dr. Anjali Mehta, one of the lead surgeons on the case. “There are fewer than 20 documented cases of intrahepatic ectopic pregnancies in the world. The liver is not a place where an embryo can survive, yet in this case, it developed for 12 weeks.”
Ectopic pregnancies typically occur in the fallopian tubes, but in this instance, the fertilized egg managed to travel to the upper abdomen and lodge in the liver, an organ rich in blood supply, allowing temporary fetal development.
A high-risk, emergency surgery was conducted to remove the foetus and prevent liver rupture — a potentially fatal complication. The mother is reported to be recovering well.
This unprecedented case has been submitted to international medical journals for study and could lead to new understandings of ectopic implantation and diagnostic techniques.
