Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Aug 6, 2021; 9(22): 6531-6537
Published online Aug 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i22.6531
Non-immune hydrops fetalis: Two case reports
Marianna Maranto, Valentina Cigna, Emanuela Orlandi, Gaspare Cucinella, Clelia Lo Verso, Vincenzo Duca, Francesco Picciotto
Marianna Maranto, Valentina Cigna, Emanuela Orlandi, Francesco Picciotto, Fetal Medicine and Prenatal Diagnosis Unit, Villa Sofia Cervello Hospitals, Palermo 90146, Italy
Gaspare Cucinella, Health Promotion, Maternal and Infant Care Unit, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties “G. D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo, Palermo 90100, Italy
Clelia Lo Verso, Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Civico Di Cristina Benfratelli Hospital, Palermo 90100, Italy
Vincenzo Duca, Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Ingrassia Hospital, Palermo 90100, Italy
Author contributions: Maranto M reviewed the literature and drafted the manuscript; Picciotto F and Cigna V were the pregnant women’s obstetricians and contributed to manuscript drafting as for maternal management; Lo Verso C and Duca V were the babies’ neonatologists, reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting as for neonatal management; Orlandi E analyzed and interpreted the imaging findings; all authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Marianna Maranto, MD, Doctor, Fetal Medicine and Prenatal Diagnosis Unit, Villa Sofia Cervello Hospitals, Via Trabucco180, Palermo 90146, Italy. marianna.maranto@community.unipa.it
Received: April 7, 2021
Peer-review started: April 7, 2021
First decision: April 23, 2021
Revised: May 6, 2021
Accepted: June 4, 2021
Article in press: June 4, 2021
Published online: August 6, 2021
Processing time: 111 Days and 18.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: We present herein, two rare cases of non-immune hydrops fetalis with severe fetal anemia. Despite the similar onset, the etiology was infectious in the first case and autoimmune in the last one. In particular, we want to emphasize that even if the infectious examinations are not conclusive, but the pregnancy history is strongly suggestive of infection, the infectious etiology must not be excluded. Secondly, transplacental passage of maternal autoantibodies can cause hydrops fetalis and severe anemia. In any case, obstetric management must always be aimed at fetal support up to an optimal timing for delivery by evaluating risks and benefits.