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| Ectopic Pregnancy: Modern View | Ectopic is called any type of pregnancy, situated outside its normal location, called the uterus or womb. This usually occurs in case if the fertilized egg from one of the ovaries, does not get implanted normally in the uterus, and instead of this it begins to develop somewhere else. The products of this conception are usually not normal, and it can not grow and develop to become a fetus. As a rule the term “tubal pregnancy” is applied, as in about 97% of cases it occurs in one of the fallopian tubes. However, it is also quite possible that the pregnancy may occur somewhere else, like in the ovary, cervix, or, even in the abdominal cavity, though these are rare cases. Generally ectopic pregnancy is diagnosed during the first 5 – 10 weeks of pregnancy.
The greatest danger of the ectopic pregnancy lies in the fact, that the fallopian tube is neither large nor elastic enough to provide normal growth and development of a fetus inside of it, and it may get ruptured as the embryo become bigger, which may become the reason of severe internal bleeding, possibly resulting in shock and can occasionally even lead to the death of a woman.
It should also be noted, that the incidence of ectopic pregnancy is or a rising character, as about 7% out of 1,000 reported pregnancies in the United States are ectopic, however, since the 11th century, when this condition was described for the first time, the death rate from ectopic pregnancy has significantly declined. The reason of it is the advent of modern techniques, which permit to provide the diagnosis and treatment of it. Nowadays, the rate of death of the ectopic pregnancy is less than one per 2,500 cases, and this low death rate may be attributed to several important modern developments, such as:
1. Early detection of pregnancy. The availability of modern sensitive pregnancy tests, which can provide the detection of any pregnancy much earlier than before, becomes the reason of the possibility to detect ectopic pregnancy at a time before the advanced damage and / or rupture of the fallopian tubes.
2. Ultrasound monitoring. In case of application of some modern and improved ultrasound equipment, it becomes possible to evaluate pregnancy during its early terms, as well as to detect its location and the actual flow of blood to the uterus / tube, which helps to estimate the risk of blood loss from ectopic rupture significantly enough.
3. Improved surgical techniques, such as laparoscopy, as well as some other surgical techniques, which have been refined during many years, nowadays let much safer removing of tubal pregnancy as well as improved tubal healing.
4. Improvements in anesthesia and blood products. It is necessary to point out that numerous refinements, applied in anesthesia, just as well as safer and more widely available blood for transfusion, have improved surgical outcomes dramatically.
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