Cervical Ectopic Pregnancy After in Vitro Fertilization: Case Report Successfully Treated With Cervical Electric Aspiration
Cervical Ectopic Pregnancy After in Vitro Fertilization: Case Report Successfully Treated With Cervical Electric Aspiration
Cervical Ectopic Pregnancy After in Vitro Fertilization: Case Report Successfully Treated With Cervical Electric Aspiration
1
Reproduction Department of Pérola Byington Hospital
for neck extension, scarce blood in the catheter and ab- The etiology of cervical gestation after IVF-ET is poorly
sence of embryo retained after transfer. Seven embryos understood. It is believed to be related to the exacerba-
were cryopreserved. tion of contractions of the junctional zone of the uterus
Patient presented dosage of beta hCG 4,815.93 IU/mL in the luteal phase as a consequence of the elevation of
on the 26th day after ET. At 33 days ET had vaginal bleed- progesterone, producing a similar effect to that occurring
ing. Transvaginal ultrasonography showed cystic image on the tubal motility. It is possible that the uterine fundus
measuring 4.9 mm in the cervix, compatible with gesta- stimulation provoked by the probe during ET also changes
tional sac with 3 mm embryo, indicating cervical gestation the contractility of the junctional zone. In addition, wom-
of 6 weeks (Figures 1 and 2). It was observed peripheral en who attended other forms of ectopic pregnancy had a
and parietal neovascularization with high resistivity index. higher peak of estradiol after ET (Lesny et al., 1999).
The test was repeated after 24 hours by another operator, Authors such as Bennett et al. (1993) and Yu et al.
confirming the diagnosis. (2014) accept these hypotheses, although they warn that
Laparoscopic emptying of the cervix with a 6 mm di- women who undergo assisted reproduction procedures and
ameter Karman cannula (EasyGrip® cannula 6 mm) was who undergo cervical ectopic pregnancy often have other
performed without the use of ultrasonography. No cervi- recognized risk factors, such as previous uterine instru-
cal canal tamponade was required due to scarce cervical mentation, uterine and cervical anatomical abnormalities,
bleeding at the end of the operative period. Patient was Asheman's syndrome, uterine fibrosis, chronic endometri-
kept hospitalized for 24 hours for strict observation of vag- tis or endometrial atrophy.
inal bleeding. She was discharged in good clinical condi- ET timing does not appear to be associated with an
tion, without vaginal bleeding and without the need for increased risk of cervical ectopic pregnancy (Lesny et al.,
other interventions. She returned after a week to review 1999). However, authors suggest that the difficulty of ET
the procedure, without vaginal bleeding and with normal or manipulation of the uterine cervix increases the risk
ultrasound examination. of ectopic pregnancy, either through the use of dilators,
rigid probes for wire transfer or guidewire, or neck elon-
DISCUSSION gation clamps (Bennett et al. 1993; Lesny et al., 1999;
Chen et al., 2001). Considering these possibilities, Yovich
The review of the literature in the database of the US
et al. (1985) recommend that the ET catheter be insert-
National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health
ed 55 mm routinely. In this case report, the patient had
(PubMed) using the descriptors ("Fertilization in Vitro"
no known risk factors for cervical ectopic pregnancy, no
[Mesh]) and "Pregnancy, Ectopic" and "Cervix Uteri" Mesh]
dilation or elongation of the cervix was used, and the ET
results in 25 articles published in the last 32 years, indicat-
presented no difficulty.
ing the rarity of cervical ectopic pregnancy after IVF.
The literature reports 12 cases of exclusive cervical
The literature indicates a frequent association of cer-
ectopic pregnancy after IVF-ET (Weyerman et al., 1989;
vical ectopic pregnancy after IVF-ET with heterotopic
Bennett et al., 1993; Ginsburg et al., 1994; Saliken et al.,
pregnancy. This form of ectopic pregnancy is defined by
1994; Pattinson et al., 1994. Two cases of twin cervical ec-
concomitance with another intrauterine pregnancy, a rare
topic pregnancy, rarer, are reported by Anev et al. (2013)
event in spontaneous pregnancies estimated at 1: 30,000
and by Aboulfoutouh et al. (2011). In all other cases, cer-
pregnancies. However, in the last three decades this rate
vical ectopic pregnancy after IVF-ET was heterotopic. Oth-
has been increasing significantly with assisted reproduc-
er exceptional situations are described by Lin et al. (2013),
tion techniques (Jozwiak et al., 2003; Lin et al., 2013).
in case of triple heterotopic pregnancy after IVF-ET, with
topical, tubal and cervical embryo, and by Davies et al. al. (2001) also chose the aspiration of cervical pregnancy
(1990), who describe cervical heterotopic gestation in a after IVF-ET, but associated the suture of the neck to pre-
patient with previous cervical ectopic pregnancy. vent hemorrhage, preserving the topical pregnancy until
According to Chen et al. (2001), hysterectomy re- the term.
mained until the early 1980s as the main treatment of Some authors adopt more complex treatments in more
cervical ectopic pregnancy, definitively compromising the adverse circumstances. Tsakos et al. (2015) report cases
woman's reproductive future. Ultrasonography changed of heterotopic cervical pregnancy with live embryos after
this scenario, reducing maternal mortality in cases of cer- oocyte donation IVF-ET, successfully treated with cervical
vical ectopic pregnancy from 40% to less than 10%. When aspiration followed by placement of Foley catheter and cer-
performed before the 10th week of pregnancy, ultrasonog- clage. Topical pregnancy followed without complications
raphy makes the early diagnosis of cervical ectopic preg- with elective cesarean delivery at week 38. In another
nancy. This allows more effective interventions that sig- case, Prorocic & Vasiljevic (2007) were able to preserve an
nificantly reduce the risk of bleeding and death, as well as intrauterine twin pregnancy by treating cervical pregnancy
maintaining the reproductive capacity of women (Bennett with aspiration and injection of hypertonic solution of KCL
et al., 1993). Magnetic resonance imaging has rarely been after ligation of descending cervical branches of the uterine
used in the propaedeutics of cervical ectopic pregnancy arteries.
and should be considered, as advocated by Pattinson et al. The exclusive use of the KCL injection for embryo re-
(1994) and Ginsburg et al. (1994). duction in a case of cervical ectopic pregnancy was an
In the last decades conservative treatments have been alternative of Carreno et al. (2000), resulting in topical
described with success, mainly in the heterotopic gesta- gestation up to the 36th week with a healthy newborn.
tions in which it is intended to maintain intrauterine ges- Honey et al. (1999) used the same strategy for cervical
tation. Only one case of spontaneous abortion of cervical embryo reduction, preceded by selective fluoroscopic em-
heterotopic pregnancy with normal follow-up of intrauter- bolization of the uterine arteries for prophylaxis of cervical
ine pregnancy is reported by Livingstone et al. (2000). hemorrhage. Although they have been successful in the
Anev et al. (2013) believe that the method should be de- treatment of cervical pregnancy, adverse events have not
cided together with the woman, considering her desire for allowed the evolution of topical pregnancy until the term.
future pregnancy and the experience of the medical staff. Hysteroscopic resection was alternative to Jozwiak
Retrospective study by Yu et al. (2014) with 25 heterotopic et al. (2003) to treat cervical heterotopic pregnancy and
pregnancies of different types showed that most cases of maintain intrauterine pregnancy to term successfully. The
heterotopic cervical pregnancy were treated with local in- use of methotrexate for the treatment of cervical hetero-
jection of methotrexate, combined or not with the injection topic gestation is described by authors such as Bratta et
of potassium chloride. al. (1996), Hsieh et al. (2004), Aboulfoutouh et al. (2011),
Cho et al. (2007) reported a case of aspiration of cervi- Sánchez-Ferrer et al. (2011) and Tsakos et al. (2015). The
cal ectopic pregnancy after 7 weeks IVF-ET guided by ultra- association of methotrexate with embolization of the uter-
sonography, maintaining the gestation until the 35th week. ine arteries and cervical aspiration was adopted by Sán-
Similar treatment was adopted by Hsieh et al. (2008), with chez-Ferrer et al. (2011).
transvaginal aspiration of the cervical embryo guided by The few cases of exclusive cervical ectopic pregnancy
ultrasonography preserving intrauterine gestation. Chen et after IVF-ET described in the literature were treated with
different therapeutic approaches. Uterine artery emboliza- Bennett S, Waterstone J, Parsons J, Creighton S. Two cases of
tion was employed by Saliken et al. (1994) as a preopera- cervical pregnancy following in vitro fertilization and embryo
tive measure. Subsequently, Yu et al. (2009) opted for the transfer to the lower uterine cavity. J Assist Reprod Genet.
same procedure before cervical emptying, also achieving 1993;10:100-3. PMID: 8499672. DOI: 10.1007/BF01204450
success. Two cases of cervical gestation after IVF-ET were
reported by Bennett et al. (1993), both successful with as- Bratta FG, Ceci O, Loizzi P. Combined intra-uterine and
piration of pregnancy followed by tamponade of the cervix cervical pregnancy treated successfully with methotrexate.
with balloon. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 1996;53:173-4. PMID: 8735300
Other forms of treatment of cervical ectopic pregnan- DOI: 10.1016/0020-7292(96)83568-5
cy are described. Hsieh et al. (2004) opted for the use of
methotrexate and intracervical injection of vasopressin. In Carreno CA, King M, Johnson MP, Yaron Y, Diamond MP,
an unusual case, Anev et al. (2013) describe a diamniotic Bush D, Evans MI. Treatment of heterotopic cervical and
and monochorionic twin cervical ectopic pregnancy after intrauterine pregnancy. Fetal Diagn Ther. 2000;15:1-3.
single ET, diagnosed at week 6 and treated with the com- PMID: 10705207. DOI: 10.1159/000020967.
bination of mifepristone and systemic methotrexate, fol-
lowed by aspiration cervical emptying. Aboulfoutouh et al.
Chen D, Kligman I, Rosenwaks Z. Heterotopic cervical
(2011) also reported a case of twin cervical ectopic preg-
pregnancy successfully treated with transvaginal ultra-
nancy after IVF-ET, but opted for ultrasound-guided aspi-
sound-guided aspiration and cervical-stay sutures. Fertil
ration and single methotrexate systemic injection. Sieck
Steril. 2001;75:1030-3. PMID: 11334923. DOI: 10.1016/
et al. (1997) have been successful in employing exclusive
S0015-0282(01)01746-0.
methotrexate to treat cervical ectopic pregnancy. Similar
procedure was adopted by Piccioni et al. (2015), which
made possible later pregnancy to term. Cho JH, Kwon H, Lee KW, Han WB. Cervical heterotopic
Few cases of second trimester cervical pregnancy pregnancy after assisted reproductive technology success-
are described. The first case of second trimester cervical fully treated with only simple embryo aspiration: a case
pregnancy after IVF-ET was described by Weyerman et report. J Reprod Med. 2007;52:250-2. PMID: 17465300.
al. (1989), completed at the 26th week of gestation af-
ter hysterectomy, with a newborn of 830 grams. Pattinson Davies DW, Masson GM, McNeal AD, Gadd SC. Simulta-
et al. (1994) report the treatment of this condition with neous intrauterine and cervical pregnancies after in vitro
embolization of the uterine arteries followed by emptying fertilization and embryo transfer in a patient with a his-
of the cervix and placement of an intracervical balloon. tory of a previous cervical pregnancy. Case report. Br J
Successful conduct allowed for new ET to be performed, Obstet Gynaecol. 1990;97:634-7. PMID: 2202433. DOI:
resulting in uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery with 10.1111/j.1471-0528.1990.tb02554.x
healthy newborn.
Honey L, Leader A, Claman P. Uterine artery emboliza-
CONCLUSION tion--a successful treatment to control bleeding cervical
Cervical ectopic pregnancy after IVF-ET is a rare condi- pregnancy with a simultaneous intrauterine gestation.
tion. The different approaches found in the literature indi- Hum Reprod. 1999;14:553-5. PMID: 10100008. DOI:
cate that there is no consensus on the best treatment. This 10.1093/humrep/14.2.553
report is the only case of successful treatment of cervical
pregnancy after IVF-EF only with the use of cervical aspi- Hsieh BC, Lin YH, Huang LW, Chang JZ, Seow KM, Pan
ration. The experience of different authors is unanimous in HS, Hwang JL. Cervical pregnancy after in vitro fertilization
considering the fundamental routine ultrasonography after and embryo transfer successfully treated with methotrex-
IVF-ET for the early diagnosis of exclusive or heterotopic ate and intracervical injection of vasopressin. Acta Obstet
cervical ectopic gestation, significantly reducing the risk of Gynecol Scand. 2004;83:112-4. PMID: 14678095 DOI:
adverse events. 10.1111/j.1600-0412.2004.0033b.x
CONFLICT OF INTEREST Hsieh BC, Seow KM, Hwang JL, Lin YH, Huang LW, Chen HJ,
The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. Tzeng CR. Conservative treatment of cervico-isthmic het-
erotopic pregnancy by fine needle aspiration for selective
Corresponding Author: embryo reduction. Reprod Biomed Online. 2008;17:803-5.
Jefferson Drezett PMID: 19079964. DOI: 10.1016/S1472-6483(10)60408-7
Reproduction Department
Pérola Byington Hospital Jozwiak EA, Ulug U, Akman MA, Bahceci M. Success-
São Paulo - SP - Brazil ful resection of a heterotopic cervical pregnancy result-
E-mail: [email protected] ing from intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Fertil Steril.
2003;79:428-30. PMID: 12568859. DOI: 10.1016/S0015-
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