interstitial pregnancy

About one in fifty women with an interstitial pregnancy dies.

Interstitial pregnancies have a higher mortality than ectopics in general.

With the growing use of assisted reproductive technologies, the incidence of interstitial pregnancy is rising.

Typical symptoms of an interstitial pregnancy are the classical signs of ectopic pregnancy, namely abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding.

In patients with an asymptomatic interstitial pregnancy methotrexate has been successfully used, however, this approach may fail and result in cornual rupture of the pregnancy.

Patients with an ectopic pregnancy are generally at higher risk for a recurrence, however, there are no specific data for patients with an interstitial pregnancy.

A ruptured interstitial pregnancy is a medical emergency that requires an immediate surgical intervention either by laparoscopy or laparotomy to stop the bleeding and remove the pregnancy.

Mortality of a tubal pregnancy at the isthmus or within the uterus (interstitial pregnancy) is higher as there is increased vascularity that may result more likely in sudden major internal hemorrhage.

The definition of an ectopic pregnancy is a pregnancy outside of the uterine cavity, not outside of the uterus, as the interstitial pregnancy is still a uterine pregnancy.

An interstitial pregnancy is a uterine but ectopic pregnancy; the pregnancy is located outside of the uterine cavity in that part of the Fallopian tube that penetrates the muscular layer of the uterus.

Interstitial pregnancies can be confused with angular pregnancies; the latter, however, are located within the endometrial cavity in the corner where the tube connects; typically those pregnancies are viable although a high miscarriage has been reported.

The part of the Fallopian tube that is located in the uterine wall and connects the remainder of the tube to the endometrial cavity is called its "interstitial" part, hence the term "interstitial pregnancy"; it has a lenghth of 1-2 cm and a width of 0.7 cm.