Pulmonary Metastases in Gestational Trophoblastic Disease A Review of 223 Cases

Abstract

A study of epidemiological characteristics of patients with pulmonary metas tases of gestational traphoblastic disease was carried out between 1970 and 1987 at Guangxi Medical College, Guangxi, China. Of 389 patients with malignant trophoblas tic disease, 223 had pulmonary metastases. The ages of these patients varied from 20 to 58 and 88 per cent of them were multiparae. The antecedent pregnancies were molar pregnancy, full term pregnancy, abortion, and ectopic pregnancy which were encoun tered in 64.1, 21.0, 13.9 and 1 per cent respectively. The diagnosis of pulmonary metas tases was made, in the mojority of cases, within one year after the termination of pre vious pregnancies. The mortality rate among these patients was 24.2 per cent. With the combination of surgery and chemotherapy, hysterectomy significantly reduced the mor tality rate. The causes of death were cerebral haemorrhage, respiratory failure, abdomi nal bleeding, and unknown cause encountered in 59.3, 24.0, 7.4, and 9.3 per cent re spectively. (Thai J Obstet Gynaecol 1989;1: 97-100.).